Nanovolt Entity Of Destiny's Existence
by Whismy
Summary: A story about Pikmin survival. When times have changed and the impossible becomes the everyday, who can you trust? ::Rated T just to be safe::
1. Prologue: Beginnings

(Pikmin is copyright Nintendo)

(All measurements used in this story are of pikmin perspective. EG: one metre would be about the height of the pikmin, excluding stems)

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><p>PROLOGUE<p>

They all watched as Olimar and the President lift off, the onions giving off large quantities of light around them as a final farewell. They - the pikmin - were also glowing, chanting their little chant as part of the farewell act. Finally, when the ship left the atmosphere, the onions came back down to the surface. The pikmin had earlier decided to go their separate ways when Olimar had left, so they said their goodbyes to each other, and headed into their onions, with the purples trekking to the Valley of Repose to live in the Subterranean Complex, where they knew they would live peacefully, as they had eventually befriended the Man-at-Legs that lived down there. The whites were also going to the Valley of Repose, but were going to live in the Frontier Cavern, due to conveniently finding a great spot to live in harmony with the other creatures, as they had no need to attack each other. The reds were going to the Wistful Wild, as they liked the challenge of stronger creatures, due to their slightly bigger yearn for fighting, a trait found in all reds and the reason behind why they do more damage. The yellows were headed for the Awakening Woods, which they loved due to the vast amount of high places, especially the towering trees. The blues were staying put - in the Perplexing Pool. The reason for this was obvious: The vast amount of water was a haven for them, plus, they had a score to settle with the Waterwraith that called the Submerged Castle its home, and also wanted to try and find another Smokey Progg, of which they now had a strategy against, as well as also wanting the treasure it released - it's golden pearl-like core, that of which was extreme value to the pikmin due to having enough nutrients to make 100 seeds. The pikmin said their goodbyes to each other, and headed in their destined directions. There was one pikmin, however, that decided stay behind for a little bit. He was a red pikmin, and he was the very first pikmin to have ever met Captain Olimar. He was the seed ejected from the onion when Olimar first discovered it in the Impact Site, and as such was the most experienced pikmin there was. He had seen it all - everything from the simplest Dwarf Red Bulborb, many a time he had gone one-on-one against (and many a time had nearly been eaten by one due to a mistimed throw), to Beady Long Legs (which he swore was harder to defeat the first time Olimar was here, most likely because it was a more mature specimen), to the dreadful Emperor Bulblax, which always chilled him to the bone whenever he thought of one, especially the much more mature one they had faced in the Final Trial. That day was a bittersweet day, where he had dealt the final blow to the hideous beast, but only after getting a distinctive scar along his face, which looked like he had had a knife slashed diagonally across his face, with the thing, straight cut going from the top-left of his face to the bottom-right, caused by one of the rocky protrusions on the behemoths back. This pikmin was one of few to have a name, as only the veteran pikmin had names. His name was Neode, an unlikely name for a red pikmin, but chosen for a reason known only to Neode himself.

"Oi, when are ya gonna get back in the onion?" Shouted another red pikmin, this one being the 23rd pikmin born, and therefore one of the 25 born on Olimar's very first day on the planet.

"Eeh, later. In fact, I'm considering staying here for the night", Replied Neode.

"But you know the blue onion won't accept you in! Besides, the blues are going to live next to the Submerged Castle, for easier access once they have enough numbers...

"Who said I was planning on staying the night in an onion?

"WHAT? You'll never survive the night alone! You'll be eaten at the first opportunity!

"Heh heh heh… just watch me…

The pikmin continued to stare at Neode, arms raised and mouth open ready to continue arguing, but eventually he flung his arms into the air and gave up. "If you die, it's your own bloody fault"

"Meh. Pick me up in the morning. Judging from what I overheard the blues discussing, they're going to have a full day of sleeping in, so you'll be able to bring a full army of 99 pikmin to try and find me"

With that, Neode walked off, only stopping to say goodbye to the other veterans: Volt, the very first yellow pikmin, Aqua, the first blue pikmin, Veno, the first white pikmin, and Sok, the first purple pikmin. Before Neode looked for a spot to stay, he did a quick check of how many pikmin were in the field. He counted 1523, around 300 of each colour, a few more for some, a few less for others. This was the only time the onions allowed more than 100 pikmin on the surface of each region at a time. All others times, the onions restrict any more than a total of 100 on the surface per region, due to survival reasons, in the case the whole group of 100 was wiped out for some reason. Pikmin had the ability to sense the exact numbers of how many pikmin were on the field, and, when standing under the onion, how many were inside it, the exact same way the leaders did. Pikmin could also understand every word the leaders said, even if the leaders couldn't understand them, and so knew the name of every enemy and every region.

Neode finally walked off from everyone else, desperate to be alone. Neode liked being alone; he was able to think and work better, and in some cases even fight better - many a time he had killed a creature on his own quicker and easier than a group of 20 pikmin would have. However, he liked the company of the leaders, especially Olimar. Because of this, he felt quite sad to see Olimar and the President lift off in the gleaming gold ship, but happy for them at the same time, working tirelessly to help them. They all did, not just because they saw them as leaders, but because the pikmin WANTED to help. This is because of their ability to feel the emotions of people they see as leaders, and so help people to receive and feel the joy that they feel when they complete their task.

Neode eventually found a small cave on the far edge of the Perplexing Pool, at the base of a long extinct volcano. He ventured inside, and found it to be unusually cosy. He wondering as to why this could be the case, when he realised that he was standing on a blanket of cut grass. Neode wondered as to why there would be an even layer of cut grass inside a cave when he saw something. Or rather, two things.

Eyes.

Giant, white eyes.

Eyes that could only belong to…

Neode ran back outside, as the Bulborb chased him outside. He pressed his back against the wall outside, hoping it wouldn't see him. Luckily, it didn't.

Instead, it yelped.

Neode had only seen this in the Dwarf Bulborbs, and it was used to awaken any nearby Bulborbs. So, as he saw this full grown Bulborb yelp, he couldn't help but wonder why.

He also noticed that its head was slightly larger than usual, but with no visual changed to the jaw, meaning that the top of its skull - where its brain was - was larger than normal. Neode figured that this meant its brain was larger, possibly due to developing a whole new way of hunting and/or killing. Neode then linked the possibility that it could have developed such a better hunting technique that its brain expanded and the yelp.

The sudden slight tremor, the four loud bangs of something hitting the ground, and the creature that came from nowhere that now stood right in front of Neode helped confirm that.

The Titan Dweevil towered over him, slightly moving up and down, its mandibles crossed behind its back. Neode noted that it was fairly smaller than the Titan Dweevil he clashed with in the Dream Den. Although without armour or weapons, and despite its size, it could still kill him instantly with either a single jab of a leg or by picking him up and eating him. Neode considered his options, and decided to run. However, the Titan Dweevil thought otherwise. It jabbed a large leg into the ground, right next to where Neode was running. He turned around to head the other way, and anticipated the Dweevils next move. What he anticipated was correct, and so as another leg jabbed into the ground right in front of him, he jumped, and grabbed into the leg. He instantly started climbing up the leg, intending to reach the body. The Titan Dweevil started shaking its leg in an attempt to fling him off, and when that proved ineffective, it tried using its mandibles to grab onto Neode. He dodged the two hand-like pincers, and quickly looked over to where the Bulborb was, checking to see if it was going to do anything sneaky. It was.

It was holding a dozen bomb rocks in its mouth. Neode stopped climbing and gaped, but quickly continued his ascent, making sure to keep the Bulborb in his vision. He eventually reached the head of the Dweevil, then realised he has no plan. So, he did what every sensible pikmin would do: Grab on for dear life and start whacking. However, he decided he would whack the eyes for maximum damage. He looked to his left before whacking, and saw the Bulborb put all bomb rocks down except one. It held this one on its tongue, and made an odd cry at Neode. No, at the Titan Dweevil. The Dweevil, seeing this as a cue, reached up and grabbed Neode off its forehead, and held him out in front of it. The Bulborb took its chance, and threw the bomb rock. Neode saw the explosive head straight for him, and instinctively put his hands up to protect himself, shutting his eyes in the process.

When he opened his eyes, he saw something he would have never thought to have seen in his life.

He was holding the bomb rock!

He spent a second frantically thinking what to do, before finally deciding that he wanted carnage. So he threw the explosive at the pile of other bomb rocks.

The resulting explosion nearly tore his face off.

Neode was flung far backwards off the Titan Dweevil, and landed on his back. He got up a few seconds later to discover that the Bulborb had been flung several metres to his right, and was dead, having half of its body blown off and in pieces around it, the other half badly burnt and bleeding profoundly. The Titan Dweevil appeared to suffered major damage to one leg, but was still able to walk fine, as if nothing happened. However, it did have a look of pain in its eyes, and Neode stopped for a moment. He also saw fear and an unwillingness to fight in its eyes. Only then did he realise its true size. It was only about a third of the size of a normal Titan Dweevil, not even as wide as an onion. It was a baby! That's how the smartened Bulborb was able to call it without fuss. Neode stepped forward slowly; arms outspread to show he was not going to harm it. The Dweevil, now realising that its master was dead, just stood there, staring at Neode, uncertain as to what to do. Neode eventually got close enough to touch it, but when he put his arm out, it moved its head back a little. Neode withdrew his arm, and waited for it to settle. Then, he tried again. This time, it moved its head back again, but not as much, and Neode was still able to reach it. Finally, he touched it. The Titan Dweevil stood there, as still as stone, before finally realising that Neode wasn't a threat, and relaxed. Neode then thought he would try something, something the others had done with some other creatures before. He tried talking to it.

"Can you understand me?"

The Dweevil just stood there, unsure as of what to do.

"Nod your head if you can understand what I'm saying"

Again, it stood there, but finally, it nodded, giving a barely audible wail, the signature cry of Titan Dweevils. Neode smiled, this was good.

Then Neode had a brilliant idea. He jumped up onto the Dweevils head, and sat on it. He then asked it to move forward. It did so without argument. Neode beamed with excitement, and told it to move towards the large lake of water in the Perplexing Pool, next to the landing zone. The Dweevil responded with a slight wail, and headed straight towards where it was told to go. It liked this little creature. It didn't want to harm it like the other little colourful creatures like it did. Instead, it just wanted to be friendly. It wasn't mean like that two-legged spotty thing, instead, it was nice. The Dweevil then thought that from that day on, it would protect this little creature, as it had been the nicest creature it had even encountered.

Neode eventually arrived in the water, and noticed that the Toady Bloyster that usually inhabited this part of the water was gone. In its place was a Spotty Bulbear and 10 of its young, feasting on what remained of it. One of the juveniles noticed Neode and his new pet, and barked in surprise. Its 9 siblings and the parents raised their head, and looked at Neode too. The parent stood in front of the carcass and its young, growling. Neode simply looked at them, and then told the Dweevil to move on. Once the Titan Dweevil passed, the Bulbears happily continued eating, although now cautious as to what else could be out there that wasn't usually out at this time of night.

The landing zone, where every pikmin had gathered for the farewell, was now deserted. Neode looked around, and decided that he should find a place to sleep for the night. He spotted a little area to the left, where he remembered there being bomb rocks the first time Olimar was here. Once they got to the small, blocked off area, the Titan Dweevil gave a final wail before burrowing back down into the soil, leaving only the very top of its head slightly exposed. Neode, now used to the position that he was sitting in, quickly gathered some leaves and made a head rest, and laid down on top of his new pet. Before he went to sleep, he realised that once it grew up, it could become intelligent enough to have meaningful conversation with. Then, it would be more than a pet. It would be a friend. The last thing Neode saw before he went to sleep was a small, eight legged spider about the size of his torso, crawling towards him. He wondered whether it was a danger or not, but this thought was cut short as he fell asleep.

The next day, the red onion touched down at the landing zone, with the blue onion flying towards the corner of the Perplexing Pool. The first pikmin to get out was another veteran. His name was Crim, and was the 42nd pikmin born. He was a veteran because of his notoriety as being the pikmin that defied the odds. He had been in the maw of many a Bulborb, had survived a rolling Segmented Crawbster, and had even survived two Gatling Groinks at once, and had defeated both with only a few others to help him, due to careful planning made by Veno, who was also with him, and who is considered to be the smartest pikmin alive. He was also one of Neode's best friends. First, he brought out 98 pikmin. Once they were all out, he checked how many were in the region.

His heart sunk as he realised that there were only 99 pikmin on the field, the 98 he called out and him. Hoping to find any clue as to what happened to Neode, he sent 80 to search every corner of the Perplexing Pool they could access, in groups of 20 for in case they encountered any creatures that could pose a threat. He then led the remaining 18, and started looking. He spent the whole day looking, but found nothing. However, in the dying minutes of the day, one of the pikmin in his group spotted a small, closed off area that was barely visible unless you knew it was there. Crim recognized it as a place where bomb rocks were when Olimar was looking for his ship parts. The group walked over to it, and saw that something had been there before. Dirt was turned up in an X shape, leading to suggest that something with 4 legs had been buried here. The first thought that came to Crims mind was an Arachnorb or a Dweevil, but the size was too big for a normal Dweevil but too small for something like a Man-at-Legs. Crim knew that there wasn't any Man-at-Legs around for ages, but there was a large population of Beady Long Legs around here. However, they didn't burrow in the ground, so what could have caused it? Crim was pondering what creature it could have been when a pikmin in his group snapped him back to reality.

"Um, sir, it's sunset. We need to head back to the onion before it gets dark…"

Crim took one final look around, sighed, and slowly shook his head.

"…You're right. Let's go."

He started walking back to the onion when he felt a pat on the back. He turned around and saw one of the pikmin standing there, pity in his eyes. Crim stared at him, nodded, and then continued walking.

As the onion started to take off, Crim couldn't help but feel that during the whole day, he was watched by something. Something small, yet powerful. He had a cup of nectar to clear his mind, and fell asleep soon after, thinking about what could have happened to Neode.

Back on the surface, Neode watched the onion take off. He had been watching them the whole day, but did not wish to expose himself. He took a look at his body, now vastly different from what it was, and the spider that was hugged around his back, the legs wrapping around the top of his torso and pointing towards the centre of his chest. He grabbed hold of his stem, and looked at what once was his flower. In its place was a multi-coloured flower, the petals glowing but still able to be seen easily, giving off a small amount of light. Neode learned earlier that day that he could control the colour (its default colour was light blue, but he could change it to literally any colour) and even make it now glow at all. When it wasn't glowing, it was still shiny, but black, the same colour as his skin. He was still thankful that his physical form didn't change; only added on to. Finally, he tapped his forehead, where a single metal disc made of six curving parts was. He opened it up, still wondering what it did. Whenever he opened it, he felt tremendous power going to his forehead, yet he had no idea how to use it. Neode tried and tried to do something, but nothing happened. Finally, he gave up, but just before he closed the metal disc, he remembered the huge explosion from last night, due to the many bomb rocks going off at once. Suddenly, small light particles started appearing from nowhere and condensed at his forehead. He felt a slight pressure in his head, which soon started to get bigger and bigger, as if he was holding onto something that was getting stronger. He finally couldn't take it anymore, and tried to release the light.

What happened was not what he expected.

A large beam (about 2 or 3 metres in diameter) suddenly shot from his forehead. The beam ripped through whole tree stumps before eventually fading out, leaving everything with charcoaled walls from where the beam passed through. Neode stood there, awestruck, for about 10 seconds, before suddenly realising that that gigantic beam of destruction had taken its toll on him, and he fell backwards, nearly unconscious. The Titan Dweevil (Neode had named it Titanic earlier) looked down at him, confused and slightly worried. It poked its master with one of its mandibles, and Neode just put an arm into the air, motioning for Titanic to leave him be, and proclaimed that he was alright. Titanic, now understanding that its master was okay, backed off a little, and buried itself into the ground. After a few minutes, Neode slowly sat upright, looking out of the cave that was once the home of the brainiac Bulborb, and that he now called home. He realised just how lucky he was, to have such power, and to even have a Titan Dweevil under his command! He felt the spider around his chest shift slightly, and continued to very slowly absorb into his skin, as it had been doing all day. Neode eventually thought that it would stop shrinking around him, and that then it wouldn't be so bulky and could even be in line with his skin, so that it would be as if it wasn't there at all. He also wondered what the spider had done, and why. All he remembered was that the spider shoved some kind of glowing white orb into his body, and then jumped at him. During that time, Neode had been able to get a quick look at its features, and they were fairly similar to what he had now. Neode also wondered if the spider could be of any use. Deciding to think about it in the morning when he wasn't so fatigued, he decided to get some sleep. But before doing so, he got up, and walked to the entrance of the cave, and shouted:

"I AM NEODE, THE MOST POWERFUL BEING ON THE PLANET!"

Neode was satisfied with what he said, and so with that, he went back inside, and laid down to sleep. Little did he know that in several years' time, he would become the centre of chaos.


	2. Chapter 1: The Purity of Chaos

(Disclaimer: Pikmin is owned by Nintendo. I wish I could own pikmin. Also, I'm not going to mention any copyright of my custom characters, seeing as they are still of the same copyrighted species, and plus, Australia auto makes all original media content copyright. Instantly. Watcha gonna do bout it? :P)

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><p><strong>Chapter1: The Purity of Chaos<strong>

**Red:**

The red onion flew down to the Wistful Wild, and landed gently on the ground, in the middle of the field of spiderworts. Three seconds later, 10 pikmin sailed down the legs of the onion, and looked around. One of these was a pikmin, who although didn't officially have a name, was called Red. He game himself a name because he wanted to stand out from the others in some way, although it did nothing to boost what little reputation he had. He looked towards the nearby pond of water, which had finally filled up again, due to a small landslide covering the crack in the ground, and recent rains. Today though, there was more than water in the lake. Red tapped his friend on the shoulder, and he looked around. "What…. Is that?

"I have no idea, but we should show the others", said Red. However, they had already noticed, and were cautiously walking towards it. Red and his friend also waked towards it, but not as slowly. They all reached the edge of the lake, and quickly started to slowly move back.

"Oh no oh no oh no…", said one of them, as the others remained silent as they backed away, slowly walking faster and faster.

However, it was the fact that it was in the WATER that surprised Red the most. How could it be there? Why didn't it explode or something?

"It is half machine, after all", said Red quietly to himself. Suddenly, there was a loud rumble from far off. Everyone stopped and looked around, a couple looking straight at the creature in the pond. The rumble only lasted for a second or two, but it was enough.

With a loud hiss, the man-at-legs rose from the ground, and shook itself off. It looked (Red _thought _it did anyway - it was impossible to tell due to lack of any facial features) straight at the 10 startled reds, and then ran off.

Away from the reds.

The reds continued staring at it as it almost ran into the distance, not stopping to shoot anything. Red then knew something was wrong. Another rumble was heard, and then everything started shaking.

Red was instantly flung of his feet, and rolled onto his front. His eyes widened in surprised, and he rolled to the left, narrowly dodging a large nut of some sort that had fallen from one of the gigantic trees above. He lay there, thanking the heavens that it didn't hit his bud, before getting up and observing what was happening. The ground was still shaking, and all the wildlife of the Wistful Wild was in havoc.

Trees were falling over.

Large cracks in the ground.

Landslides of gigantic proportion.

Bulborbs and their young (as well as the breadbug mimics, who had hunted with actual bulborbs for so long that they had formed a peace pact of some sort) running around in panic.

Cannon beetle larvae screeching loudly.

Withering blowhogs desperately trying to avoid anything falling down.

Putting it simply: pure, untainted, chaos.

Red was running for his life, his friend not far behind. What was happening? Suddenly, Red heard a fluttering noise, and quickly turned around to see the red onion taking off, the 8 other pikmin who were with them clinging tightly onto its legs, slowly climbing up. Red could only look of in disbelief as their only form of safety was flying away, with no chance of it coming back until tomorrow. Red looked at his friend, who was had a tear in his eye.

"Don't worry, we'll make it, trust me", He said, to try and comfort him.

"Yea yea, that's not what I'm crying about. What I'm crying about… is this", he replied, and he pointed to his stem. Red looked at where he was pointing, and gasped.

His flower, normally white and shining, was now dull and grey, with only two petals remaining. These remaining petals were bet awkwardly, as if flattened on an angle.

Which was exactly what had happened.

Red's friend pointed behind him, Red following his fingers, and saw the other three petals stuck between two rocks, already wilting. When a flower pikmin loses all of its' petals, they either revert back to the bud or leaf stage, depending on how much damage the base of the flower took. However, when there are still some petals left on the flower, any pain that results from flower loss isn't subdued, and will not stop until all petals are gone and the pikmin had a bud or leaf. The pain is similar to that of what it would feel like to lose an arm or leg.

"Ow, ow, ow owowowowowOW!" screamed Red's friend. He started flailing around, until eventually he calmed down. Red walked over to him, and asked if he wanted him to do the inevitable task that must be done. He nodded slowly, and Red took hold of his friend's flower, and plucked the remaining two petals off. The first one made him scream in agony, but the second one completed the deflowering process, and in a scatter of petals from seemingly nowhere, a bud formed upon Red's friend's stalk. "Oh thank you thank you THANK YOU!" he said with joy, and Red just smiled. Now at least, if they had to run, he wouldn't be left behind.

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard, and Red and his friend realised the ground was still shaking, and the chaos was abundant as ever around them, if not even more so than before. Out of a crack nearby, hundreds of dweevils of all colours scuttled out, some slipping and falling back down. There were more explosions, smaller now, but were getting closer. Red peered over the edge of the crack as the dweevil horde thinned out, and saw dozens of explosions along the edge of the crack, getting higher and higher. He could see that the source of these were fragments of bomb rocks, shattered by the quake. Red suddenly noticed, barely one pikmin length down, was a gigantic cluster of bomb rocks. Red could count at least 30 before he realised what he was counting. He saw more explosions getting closer, and only just had time to dive away from the hole before a gigantic explosion tore away the ground behind him. He landed face first, and turned around to see the ground gone, where he was standing not three seconds ago. He turned around, and instantly noticed his friend wasn't there. He did a quick 360, scanning the area around him, before hearing a scream close by. Red could tell that that was the scream of a pikmin, and he ran to the source of the scream, only to see his friend round a corner and run right back past him. Then he heard footsteps. They were quick, suction-like, and unique. Red knew instantly what it was, just before the gatling groink rounded the corner and stopped. It looked at him, before jutting out its cannon-like structure and firing. Red quickly jumped back, and ran for his life. Behind him, he could hear the footsteps of the beast, and heard it fire every few seconds. All around him were the explosions of the groink, but soon they got weaker, and Red turned around quickly to see the gatling groink tiring out. This meant that within a few seconds he was able to hide from it, and he remained hiding behind a large, rusty, metallic structure for the next minute, until he could no longer hear the footsteps of the hideous creature. Panting, Red peeked out from behind the structure, and saw his friend hiding behind another structure of similar size.

However, this one was different.

Instead of being rusty and made of metal, it was only covered in lots of the red plant matter that covered the ground of the Wistful Wild. The shape looked slightly familiar to Red, so he walked over to it, motioning his friend to back away from it slightly. He complied, and together they stood, staring at it. It was as hard as a rock, and it had what appeared to be some ferns and mushrooms growing out of it. Red noted that its size, while not great for hiding something behind it in terms of height, was quite wide, and was in a circle shape. The plants and mushrooms were about twice the height of the mound, and the vast population of them showed to Red that this had been here for some time. He also saw that where the structure (now more identifiable as a mount of something) ended and the ground started, all the plant life on the structure stopped as well. In the back of his head, something was nagging him, and he realised it was a memory of what this was, trying to tell him to…

To…

The memory suddenly came rushing back, and Red realised it was trying to tell him to run.

However, it was too late, and the mound shifted, then with an explosion of red leaves and dirt, the fully grown emperor bulblax rose from the ground, roaring. Red took a split second to note that the ground was still shaking, but stable, and yet all the chaos of the wildlife was still escalating. 'Yea, well, now that this thing has awoken, the chaos is about to expand tenfold', he thought to himself, before the bulblax turned around and roared again. Red could see no escape route, and knew that these things could jump really far, and so the only option was to fight.

Despite knowing that this beast took forever to kill even with a full army, dozens of bomb rocks and a highly skilled leader, Red and his friend got ready for the biggest fight of their life.

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><p>You like it? Some chapters may include the happenings of two or more colours, but there is an order to the different colours happenings:<p>

Red

Yellow

Blue

Purple

White

Therefore, next chapter, you shall see what's happening with the blues, and maybe yellows. Hope you enjoy it, and please to be reviewing? I would appreciate it loads if I got a review. Feel free to add as much (constructive) criticism as you want :P


	3. Chapter 2: Hydro Inferno

(Disclaimer: I do not own pikmin. Nintendo does. Although if I had the money I would buy it off them, because then I would have pikmin 3 out in no time xD)

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><p><strong>Chapter2: Hydro Inferno<strong>

**Blue:**

The pikmin who called himself Blue was currently running for his life, his three best friends running beside him. Behind them, a waterwraith was chasing them, moaning loudly. They, along with 32 other blues, were on the final floor of the Submerged Castle, and the number was dropping quickly. The two violet candypop buds that were usually here were not to be seen, and so most of the blues were looking the whole sublevel over, desperately trying to find then without being squished by the waterwraith. Originally, there had been a total of 50 of them in the cave, and 47 by the time they got to the final floor, but this particular waterwraith that they had encountered was much smarter than the others they had faced before. For starters, it was able to make the whole cave shake and make boulders drop from the ceiling just by slamming its front roller onto the ground over and over, and it somehow knew what the blues were going to do, as any last second dodges proved mainly futile.

Blue looked over his shoulder, and saw that his friends had all branched off into different directions. The waterwraith was chasing one of them, and Blue was filled with shock as he realised two things:

1: The blue it was chasing was his girlfriend.

2: She was barely a sheargrub's length from the rollers!

Without thinking, Blue ran towards the waterwraith, and jumped up onto it, knowing that even though it wouldn't do any damage to the physical projection, it could still hopefully turn its attention towards him instead.

Which it did.

Without stopping, the waterwraith shuddered, knocking Blue off, before turning towards him, still rolling and moaning as loud as ever. He turned around and ran as fast as he could, which, considering his flower was gone in place of a leaf due to being shaken off so violently, was not that fast. He could hear the stone rollers getting closer and closer, and could almost feel the waterwraith itself, leaning closer, trying to get him. Blue closed his eyes and continued running, the rollers just about to run him over…

*BOOM*

Suddenly, everything stopped. Not a single sound could be heard. The waterwraith, as well as every single pikmin there, were standing still, the only sound now being the waterwraith as it turned its head from left to right, trying to work out where the rumbling sound had come from. The pikmin were doing the same, including Blue and his friends.

*BOOM*

This time, it went for longer, and the cave shook a little. The rumbling eventually appeared to die out, but then started getting louder this time, and went way past the audacity it was at before. Now, the whole cave was shaking, and only getting worse. The walls were caving in, and water was starting to flood the floor. The waterwraith, knowing that this would be a bad time to continue trying to attack anything, disappeared into one of the cracks. Another loud bang, and the crack suddenly shifted, the two walls making the inside walls of the crack cave in on each other. The force was strong enough to anchor the true physical form of the Waterwraith into this dimension, and it was killed instantly under the crushing stone, purple liquid seeping out of the now very small gap.

All around Blue was chaos. The still surviving 25-or-so pikmin (several died from falling rocks and the like) were running around, and eventually swimming when the water rose high enough. Rocks were falling everywhere, and more and more pikmin were being hit by the rocks every minute. Blue frantically looked around for his friends, and saw one of them, his flower snagged in a crack in the wall. He swam over to him, and started trying to pull it out, but to no success. "Come on, come on, come on! Urgh, get out already!"

"Bro, I don't think it's any use…

"Yes, it is. Just try and hold onto something so you stop moving so I can get you outta this thing!

"But bro, the water pressure below us!"

He looked down, and saw the ground literally bulging, and what appeared to be a mountain from nowhere was forming on the dusty bottom, swelling and growing by the second. He knew that as soon as the ground could no longer take it, it would burst open, sending a gigantic spout of water at them.

"Just…hang…on!" He shout at him, pulling harder and harder. If the water spout hit them now, his stem would be torn from the rest of his body, and he'd die instantly.

*BOOM*

Blue had only a second to look around and realise what was happening. The walls around him were caving in! Blue then felt a bubble hit his leg. He looked down, and saw a crack in the growing mound of dirt at the bottom. Suddenly, it burst open, sending a gigantic torrent of water upwards. Blue was instantly caught in the spout, and as he was dragged up, he could see his friend, looking up at him while being crushed by the high pressure water and the collapsing walls. He mouthed one word, before a gigantic slab of tiles crashed down onto him. Blue could have killed himself right then and there, if he hadn't been stuck in the giant beam of pressurised water. As he was reaching the surface, Blue thought about the single word that his friend had mouthed to him:

'Friends'.

* * *

><p><strong>Yellow:<strong>

Suddenly, snagrets.

Everywhere.

The final floor of the Snagret Hole was home to many, many burrowing snagrets and pileated snagrets. As Yellow nimbly dodged the incoming beaks, he wondered why so many were here. His best guess was that since the cave hadn't been touched in ages, they must've bred. Olimar had only been here once, and even then he only attacked creatures he had to. Yellow was with him then, and he thought he had seen a slight look of panic. Normally, when Olimar faced one snagret, he was fine, but in this hole, littered with dozens of them, he didn't do so well. Yellow thought that this was because his fear hampered his movements and ability to think. But why did he fear them so much? He had gone up against bulborbs, wollywogs and blowhogs without batting an eyelid.

Yellow was snapped back into reality as a burrowing snagret corpse landed right next to him, slightly scratching one of the petals on his flower. He watched as the body exploded, leaving only the head. He wondered how they did that without leaving a mess, before running off and jumping onto a pileated snagret that was stuck in the ground. He and a few others that were targeting this creature were whacking it with all their might, bracing themselves for when it would eventually fully get out of the ground and burrow back down.

But that never happened.

Instead, they heard a loud screech, and the snagret dropped dead, the corpse exploding. But they never died while stuck in the ground! They always managed to get themselves out of the ground before they died. Despite this, it died normally, with the snake-like body exploding, leaving the orange head. Because it was stuck in the ground, the hole that it used to burrow to the surface was still open. Yellow peered over the edge, and he gasped.

Barely a dwarf bulborbs length down, the ground stopped, and underneath were many streams of lava, working their way through a rocky labyrinth. Looking back up, Yellow could see all the snagrets dead, and the rest of the yellow pikmin confused. He looked back down, and almost jumped. The lava had risen to nearly reach the hole!

"Um, guys, we should, um, get out of here…" he said, but, as usual, no-one heard him. That was the thing with him - no-one wanted to listen to him, and everyone just ignored him. He had no idea why, because he was a flower and he thought he was pretty nimble. However, conversation about the fact that he gave himself a name was pretty common with others talked about him, so for a while he had started to think that it could possibly be because he has a name.

"You're right, let's go!" Yellow jumped and snapped back to reality once again, and saw his friend looking at the lava, now starting its ascension up the hole. His friend looked up at him, and he felt weak at the knees. His friend, unlike him, was fairly popular, and constantly had other men trying to hit on her. Nobody knew why she hung out with the loser that was Yellow. Everyone thought he was a dork, a nobody, but not her. She was kind and passionate, but Yellow knew she was like that to everyone, and was just being kind. If only he could tell her his feelings…

Suddenly, a small rumble shook the place, and everyone stopped. Yellow slowly looked back at the hole that the snagret made, and saw the lava had risen to the top of it, but was going no further. He breathed a sigh of relief, but a second look made him take it back. The lava was starting to move, and was rippling to the sides from an unknown power in the middle. He stepped back, tapping his friend on the shoulder. "Yes?" she asked him, and gasped when she saw the lava rippling from the centre of the hole, the waves getting taller but not wider. Eventually, the ripples turned into small streams of lava rising up, before finally turning into a large column of lava, the width of the hole and reaching the height of a beady long legs. After a few seconds, it died back down, and in its place was a creature that could not possibly exist.

It was a snagret.

A gigantic snagret, even bigger than the pileated snagret.

It had charcoal black feathers on its head, which looked like it was on fire. The body was mainly very dark brown with some of the scales being a bright red instead. These scales seemed to also radiate a red aura, and what appeared to be small flames sometimes burst from them. The beak was open, the tongue lolling out to the side. The eyes were similar is design to that of the pileated snagret, with sharp plate-like pieces in the shape of flames around the eye areas. The eyes themselves were yellow and black, and were in an eternally evil look.

Yellow quickly thought up a name for this new species of snagret - the Molten Snagret - and then proceeded to quickly dodge the incoming attack, which left a burn mark where his body was seconds ago. He ran away, knowing that it could not follow him unless it burrowed.

It didn't burrow.

Instead, it breathed fire.

Right at him.

He ran away, but the flames just reached his flower, and set it alight. He ran around, panicking, but was stopped by his friend, who put the fire out by throwing dirt over it. "Thanks, I owe you one", he said to her. She smiled, but quickly had to run away as another burst of flames came their way. He managed to dodge them this time, but he knew that they couldn't attack it, due to its only weak point - the head - being on fire. He eventually made it to the wall, where everyone else was huddled. The snagret took one look at them, and sank back down into the lava. Everyone was tense for the next few seconds, before an explosion of dirt appeared right in front of them. Lava sprayed everywhere, and several pikmin died from either the lava or large rock, both flung up by the snagret, now directly in front of them. Yellow decided to make a break for it, and without thinking, he grabbed onto his friend's hand and ran towards the geyser. She yelled in surprise, but when she saw where he was going, she ran too. They soon made it, and noticed that the molten snagret had completely failed to notice their disappearance, and instead had somehow set up a lava trap, preventing any more pikmin from escaping. Then, with a chirp, it waited. One brave soul tried jumping across, and made it, but was soon eaten. The remaining group of 73 yellows just stood there in fear and shock, as Yellow and his friend climbed onto the geyser. He looked at his friend, and saw that she had tears in her eyes. "…We can't save them, no matter what we do. The bomb rocks are too big for us to handle now, remember? I'm sorry…" He said to her, trying to cheer her up. "Th-thanks…" She said back, and before he knew it, she was hugging him, tears slowly running down her eyes. He hugged her back, and felt like he could die right then and there and still be happy. They let go of their embrace, before jumping into the geyser and soaring to the surface.

When reached the surface, they saw the last thing they ever thought they would see.

Half the landscape was flooded with lava.

And the yellow onion was gone.

* * *

><p>So, a little sadness and mystery for the blues, and a little shock horror for the yellows. Please review, I like all reviews.<p>

Also, I have decided that any new creatures I make, I will put a small biography for, in the same style of Olimar's notes, at the end of the chapter. I shall also add the amount of hit points (compare the amount of hit points to the other creatures hit points on the pikipedia), amount of pikmin seeds it would generate, attacks that it can use (the numbers in brackets beside them shows max amount of pikmin that would die, - means none would die) and attributes. Also, I will refer to pikmin being poisoned/burnt/drowning[either via a body of water where they cant swim, or having a bubble of water around their flower]/anything else that may be introduced in pikmin 3 or anything that i make up that will cause pikmin to die a few seconds later after being inflicted with this problem, as being endangered.

So, to kick it off, the Molten Snagret!

* * *

><p><em>Molten Snagret<em>

_Shiropedes __flamma_

_Snavian Family_

_This snagret variation houses waxy chemicals that easily ignite on its head feathers, making it burst into flames whenever they go near a heat source. The typical environment of the species is usually far underground, near magma sources. This is so that they can always have their heads alight, as it provides an excellent defence against any creature that may attack it. It also has the waxy substance in a special pouch inside its body, which can be ignited and either liquefied to make a substitute for lava, or left as it is, allowing the Molten Snagret to breathe fire to hunt prey._

_-Hit points: 6500_

_-Pikmin seeds: 25_

_-Attacks: Pecking(3), breathing fire(any non-reds caught), douse floor in magma(any caught), burns non-red pikmin on contact(all non-red pikmin touched), burrow (-)_

_-Attributes: _

_*Burrowing: This creature burrows, and as such will be unable to be attacked until it shows itself. Some creatures, such as snagrets, may appear in a different location than where it burrowed._

_*Ground-linked: This creature is directly linked to the ground, and so cannot be stunned by the use of purple pikmin._

_*Flame covered: This creature has part of its body covered in fire, and so any pikmin that are not red that touch the part of the body that is on fire will be ignited, and will die if not attended to._

_*Eater: This creature eats pikmin, and as such is susceptible to poison damage from white pikmin._

_*Short-ranged projectile user: This creature uses short ranged projectiles, which may deflower, kill, or endanger pikmin that are hit with the projectile, depending on what the projectile is._


	4. Chapter 3: Reunion of the Damned

(Disclaimer: I do not own pikmin, Nintendo does. Wah.)

(Also, I realised that I did blues before yellows in the last chapter. Woops, I'll either continue doing that on purpose, or attempt to change it next time they're mentioned, and most likely forget to and put blues before yellows again Dx)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter3: Reunion of the damned<strong>

**Purple:**

*Boomboomboomboomboomboom*

The man-at-legs was firing at a target in the distance. Thanks to some mechanical help from the purple pikmin, it was able to fully control all mechanical parts of its body, and as such, it had control over the machine gun. However, it needed training to use it.

The 10 purple pikmin that worked on the beast were watching from the sidelines, writing notes down and discussing how its aim and firing ability was improving all the time. One of these pikmin, a semi-veteran of fighting and a full veteran of anything mechanical, was called Purple. His fellow mechanics and scientists wondered why he chose such a bland name, but they did not argue, as they were all work buddies and friends. "Hmm, I say that's enough for today", he said to his colleagues, and they both walked over to the man-at-legs, getting its attention. It made a few whirring and clicking noises, both mechanical and natural sounding at the same time, before bending down and receiving a pat on the head. Although they could not understand what it was saying, they knew that its response was one of happiness when they told it about how well it was progressing and that soon enough it would be ready.

With another mechanical chirp, it went to the hole down on the sublevel, where it would eventually find its resting place and the section of the cavern it called home. Purple wandered off to the crude structure that they had made out of metal and wood, and starting the daily task of building onto it and making it better. Today, he was upgrading the walls to be thicker and straighter, and he was going to cover them in a nice blue paint he had found several days ago. He started getting to work, looking for whatever metal and wood scraps he could find, but, as usual, there were very little, if not none. Many a time they had debated whether to use the metal that the cave was mainly made of, however, they had no way of getting the metal without fear of destroying the whole sublevel. Using their leafs/buds/flowers wouldn't work, and the man-at-legs could blow the place up.

Purple sighed, and returned to searching. He was searching in a place he had never seen before, and was pretty sure no-one had been here before, so his hopes slowly started to rise. Suddenly, he tripped on something. He landed face first, and remained there for a few seconds before getting back up. He turned around, and his eyes lit up in excitement.

Right there, in front of him, was a gigantic piece of metal!

If he could cut this up somehow, then this would finish ALL the walls with metal to spare!

He got to work, quickly carrying it back to the base. Due to all the metal every found here being strangely light, he was able to do it himself fairly easily. Eventually, he got back, and looked around for his friends. He saw none of them. He started to get worried, knowing that there was always other purples around here. Then, from seemingly nowhere, there was a loud rumble. Purple put the metal down, and looked around some more.

"Hello? Anyone there? Don 't be playing another trick on me, just come out!" he shouted out, but no response. Instead, the rumble was heard again, and this time it was louder. Then, after a few seconds, a third rumble, even louder still, and it didn't stop. Purple heard it getting louder behind him, so he turned around, and his mouth hung open in shock.

The ground was disappearing before his very eyes!

He tried to run, but, due to being a purple pikmin, this was quite slow, even with a flower. He was now running back towards the unexplored area, and went past the place where the metal was resting. Looking behind him, the collapsing edge of the metal ground was getting closer and closer, but when he looked in front of him, he saw a rocky wall. He saw that there was a crack in it, with light shining out, and he knew from past experience that this meant that there was something on the other side. He ran faster and faster, and put his head down, therefore failing to notice the crack was getting bigger. Screaming, he jumped at the crack, and burst straight through it, doing several rolls before finally coming to a halt on the other side of the wall.

* * *

><p><strong>White:<strong>

They were nearly there; whatever was on the other side of the wall was close, and the anticipation of what they could find was killing them. White and her friends were jumping up and down, thankful that the mamuta was helping them instead of planting them. Just before the mamuta swung the final blow, something burst through the wall, scattering every one of the 5 whites and the mamuta. White quickly got up, and gasped loudly at what she saw.

It was a purple pikmin!

Slowly, the others saw it too, and finally the mamuta saw it, and ran straight at it, wanting to slam the intruder into the ground. White stepped in the way, and the mamuta stopped instantly, looking at her. She shook his head at it, and then turned towards the purple pikmin. What was he doing here?

"Wooooooooooaaaaaaaaaahh, look at that!" said one of her friends, and she quickly ran to see what he were talking about. Her friend was looking through the wall, and white peered through the giant hole too, and gasped again. There was a giant chasm of nothingness. White looked down, and saw what remained of a blue metal pathway with large rusty patches, just barely hanging onto the wall. It gave a groan, and then snapped off, sending a large chunk of dirt spiralling down into the abyss below. "The remains of a sublevel of the Subterranean Complex…" White murmured to herself, and then heard a groan behind her. She turned around, and saw the purple pikmin starting to get up, the other three whites surrounding him.

"Bloody heck that was harsh… where am I?" he said in a strong but nice voice. White thought that it was a great voice.

"Don't worry mister, just careful getting up… there we go…

"I've heard that voice before… wait a minute…

White had walked over to him, and was now standing directly in front of him. The purple's eyes adjusted, and his face lit up as he saw White in front of him. "Whites! I thought I'd never see yas again!" Seeing as White was the first white he saw, she was the one who received the hug. She thought that she'd be crushed, but he was surprisingly gentle. Maybe purple pikmin weren't really that rough 'n' tumble that they appeared to be when Olimar used them…

"So that means I'm in the Frontier Cavern, right?

"Yes it does, mister", White said to him.

"Great. And what about the Complex?" he asked, but White could see he already knew the answer. She pointed to the hole where he had burst through, and one look at it and he walked away. The other white pikmin stood there for a second, still trying to process what was going on. All they had done was a simple chore for some friends and they had found a purple pikmin! White eventually decided to follow him, but she had no idea why.

After a little bit of searching, she found him, sitting on a rock, gazing at a swarm of spectralids. White sat down next to him, and watched the flitterbies dance around, the melodic tune that their wings made humming through the air. Eventually, she piped up, trying to cheer him up. "I know you just lost a sublevel of your cave and all, and that you will probably never see any of your friends again, but you can live here if you want. You'll become famous pretty quickly, most of us like new things and excitement all the time…"

"Thanks, I guess", he said back, and although White knew that that sounded a little rude, she couldn't help but forgive him, especially after seeing a tear roll down his face.

"….I lost more than friends down there. I lost my whole life, and years of work and dedication. And a special beast that was like a pet to me".

On that note, he stopped talking, and continued to stare at the spectralids, and White decided to stay with him, as she felt something inside her burning through her, but not of hate.

* * *

><p>So, not exactly the biggest chapter you've ever seen, but it's better than nothing. Yay for no homework, and therefore more chapters! Rate and review please, I accept any opinions and all constructive criticism. Sadly, no new enemies this chapter, but I can assure you that next chapter, when we feature Red again, that something big will happen, so stay tuned!<p> 


	5. Chapter 4: Impossible Entities

(Disclaimer: Pikmin is not my creation, it is Nintendo's creation. They need to get on with Pikmin 3, release it already!)

Sorry for not updating in ages guys! School makes cry (except for English classes of course xD)…

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter4: Impossible Entities<strong>

**Red:**

Red was still wondering whether it was a good decision to take on the bulblax, as it leaped high into the air again, before crashing down where he had been not long before. No doubt his friend was thinking the same thing. Red jumped onto its face, whacked it several times, and then clung for his life as it tried to shake him off. While continuing to hit the saggy flesh of the bulblax, he noticed he still had his flower. He looked over at his friend, and noticed he still had his bud. How had they not lost them yet? Red was jolted back to reality as he was finally flung off, landing nimbly on all fours before sprinting straight at it again. He once again jumped onto the emperor bulblax's face, and got ready to swing one large hit.

*BANG*

Red stopped, and looked around. Everything was still the normal chaos that it had been in for the past 10 minutes or so, and nothing looked different. Out of the corner of his eye, Red saw his friend still clinging onto a roll of fat, looking around also.

*BANG*

Suddenly, a giant spike shot up through the roof of the bulblax's head, sending blood everywhere. Red was instantly showered in the green sticky liquid, and he shook it off as fast as he could. Despite being a fight-loving pikmin, he hated bulborb blood. His friend, however, loved the stuff. He turned his head to see his friend _drinking _the blood that was splattered across the flesh in front of him. 'How can he DO that?' Red thought to himself, before turning his attention back to the spike that had impaled the head of the emperor bulblax. It was thin, curved and metallic. It had what appeared to be a joint near where it was sticking out of the head. The first thing that came to Red's mind was a titan dweevil with armour, but a second look showed that it was way too thin and sleek to be that. It suddenly retraced back down through the skull, and the bulblax corpse shuddered. Red could've sworn he had heard the snapping of bones below him, and so he jumped off, grabbing his friend on the way down. His thoughts were confirmed as a quick look saw the scissor-like leg was stabbing into the short stubby legs of the bulblax, three other scissor legs doing the same. The two legs suddenly bent backwards, a large snapping sound going with the unnatural motion. Then, the whole corpse fell down, the legs being crumped in all directions as the gigantic body crushed them. Red had seen the scissor legs go underground just before the corpse hit.  
>"Wait. What the heck were those things?" his friend asked him. "God knows, but we'd best move before they target us…"<p>

As soon as Red finished saying this, the ground shook slightly again, before the four legs rose above the ground around the bulblax. They speared themselves into the corpse, before moving downwards.

"They're never going to get that through solid ground!" Red said aloud.

He was wrong.

With minimal effort, the ground beneath the bulblax cracked wide open, and the corpse was dragged into the ground.

Red couldn't help but run over to the gigantic hole. He peered over the edge, and gasped. His friend quickly joined his side, and gasped too.

Arachnorbs.

Everywhere.

Red saw beady long legs, raging long legs, man-at-legs, as well as a couple of species he hadn't seen before. One of them was similar to the man-at-legs, but didn't appear to have a lower half that could open up. Instead, it was the owner of the spear-like legs. The other species looked like it had some cannon beetle aspects, which were confirmed as an unlucky shearwig was crushed by a boulder shot from the underside of the arachnorb. Red realised that he's have to name them. After a bit of thinking, he came up with the names of Shearlegs and Cannon Long Legs.

"Couldn't think of any better names myself!" his friend told him when Red suggested the names.

Red smiled, but then the groans of the arachnorbs below grew silent. He looked down, and saw that all of them were staring at him (of course, this couldn't be confirmed due to no facial features, but the heads had twisted in their direction). A loud metallic sound, and the Shearlegs put its legs close to its body, before twisting at high speeds and burrowing into the wall of the hole. Red and his friend looked at each other, before jumping back. Not half a second later, two of the legs speared through the ground where they had been standing. The other two legs followed, balancing perfectly on the edge on the hole. Finally, the head rose up, sending dirt everywhere. Red instantly took care to note the features of its head. Like other arachnorbs, it had no distinctive facial markings, but instead supported a metallic orb with a point on the top. He could just see a slight amount of flesh behind the highly advanced technology, which, although the same colour and design at that of the man-at-legs, looks much more futuristic, due to the sleek streamline shape of the head and legs.

The shearlegs stood there for a few seconds, doing nothing. Red finally took a step forward, and had to jerk back a little bit to avoid the sharp point of one of the legs stabbing violently into the ground in front of them. He backed off, and the shearlegs retracted its leg back to its original position. They stood there for what felt like an eternity, before the shearlegs took a couple of steps forward, making soft, metallic cries as it moved. Red gasped as a leg was raised up, ready to strike at any minute.

Instead, it lowered slowly, and landed right in front of him. He saw that the same happened with his friend. Then, the leg in front of his friend suddenly flicked forward, and his friend went flying, landing on the ground ages away. Red saw him slowly get up, unharmed, but not wanting to move. Then, he turned around just as the leg in front of him flicked him forward too, sending him flying.

Right into his friend.

They tumbled several metres, before finally coming to a standstill. Red looked up just in time to see the shearlegs retreat back into the hole. Was it merely defending the nest? Did it truly mean no harm to any creatures that did not mean harm to it? Red remembered that arachnorbs were not primarily killing species. So why had the shearlegs killed the bulblax? For food maybe? Or for something else?

He dismissed the though, and turned to his friend.

"Sunset's coming", he said, and pointed to the sky. He looked up, and saw that, indeed, the sun was starting to set. "We'd better find somewhere to stay the night…" He said back.

After a few minutes searching, they eventually found a small cavern. It was home to a few female sheargrubs, but that was all. Red killed one, and shared it with his friend as their dinner for the night, before finding some suspiciously conveniently placed straw, but thought nothing of it. He was too tired to think about anything. He said his goodnights to his friend, before drifting off to sleep, unaware of the danger that lurked in the cave right behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>Yellow:<strong>

"Oh my god…" Yellow said to himself. What was he going to do with half the ground covered in lava and the onion gone? He took a quick look around, and noticed the lava wasn't close to them. He also noticed that they were near the small alcove at the edge on the large arena-like area at the back of the Awakening Woods. This was where an armoured cannon beetle had been, and, more recently, a large pool of water with the blue onion. However, neither of them currently existed, and the arena was dry and empty as it could be. However, in the middle, there was a small creature, looking around for food. Yellow noted that it looked like a water dumple, but had dark red skin and was on fire. Being a new species, Yellow had to name it.

Yellow's friend must have been reading his mind, because as he was about to open his mouth, he heard her speak softly from behind him. "Sorry, what was that? Didn't quite catch it", he asked her. "Let's call it a fire dumple", she said. "Good idea. Now, let's stay away from it, or we could be eaten", he replied, and they both silently crept around it, before running when it turned to look at them. Thankfully, it wasn't too fast, and so they were able to get out without too much trouble. Now, they stood on the small, raised ledge just outside the arena.

Yellow now had a better view of the woods, and could see that where the yellow onion used to land (outside the spiderwort circle), was fully covered in lava. Looking to the right, he saw that the wide ledge (home to a burrowing snagret and the entrance to the Snagret Hole) was literally a waterfall of lava. He also saw that the lava appeared to originate from the very high cliff structure, where a white, cone shaped treasure used to rest. Looking beyond that, he saw the very faint outline of an absolutely gigantic volcano, lava pouring out of the top. It was nearly fully covered in the seeping magma, save for a small ledge near the bottom. Yellow wondered how he hadn't seen the whole thing before, and how that small ledge was the only spot not being flooded by lava. However, that wasn't important. What was important was that they were trapped.

Directly below them was a wide stream of lava, flowing into the area to their left where the White Flower Garden was. He felt a knot form in his stomach at the thought that the area where the white pikmin were born was being destroyed. Such a new species… He wondered if anything like this was happening in the Valley of Repose. He hoped not.

"How are we going to get over that stream?" His friend asked. "We could possibly jump, but we're doomed if we don't make it", He replied.

He looked around for something, before noticing a familiar sight to his left, far into the distance. The Bulblax Kingdom, a fearful cave known for the large amount of bulborbs it housed, seemed to be perfectly alright. There was a large tree next to it, however, that did not look so healthy. Yellow could see some flames bursting around it.

*creeeeaaaak*

The tree shifted a little bit, and then started to topple.

Directly towards Yellow!

He quickly jumped out of the way, pulling his friend along with him, before the gigantic trunk slammed down into the ground where they had been. Looking up, Yellow saw that the tree trunk was naturally bent and just the right width to fit perfectly in the opening into the large arena, where all the foliage of the tree, still on its branches, was now laying. The fire dumple was only just visible, having managed to avoid dying by being in the exact spot that there were barely any leaves and no branches at all. It looked around, started, before crawling up and over the side of the arena.

Yellow touched the wood to see if it was hot. It wasn't, but Yellow saw in the distance that the tree trunk was slowly starting to reignite after the fire was smothered by the falling trunk. Suddenly, he had an idea. He grabbed his friend's hand, and jumped up onto the trunk, just making it. She looked around, but had to quickly run as Yellow sped off down the trunk, towards the Kingdom. Eventually, she caught up with him, and then overtook him. Yellow stared at her as she sped past him. 'Obviously, having a good figure has its athletic perks', He thought to himself, before shaking his head and running faster. He heard the wood groan underneath him, and he looked down, noticing that there were many cracks in the trunk. One of these cracks made Yellow's eyes widen.

It was filled with bomb rocks!

He wondered what of earth they were doing there, before also noticing that the fire was dangerously close to them. He kept running, and hop-skip-jumped up a root, before launching himself as much as he could off the end of the tree.

*BOOOM*

While in mid-flight, limbs flailing, the tree exploded behind him, sending large chunks of sharp wood everywhere. He twisted to his side before landing, and managed to roll to soften the impact. He ended up face down on the ground, but alive.

*Thunk*

A _very _sharp chunk of flaming wood landed right next to his head. He jumped up, and saw his friend standing beside the entrance to the Bulblax Kingdom, yelling at him to follow. Yellow wasted no time in agreeing with her, before running full pelt towards the hole and her. She jumped in the hole, Yellow close behind. Just before he had entered the hole, Yellow could have sworn he had seen something on the edge of the volcano.

Something big. Something shiny.

And somehow, Yellow knew it was staring right at him.

* * *

><p>Well, wasn't that exciting? Now, for three new entries into the creature list.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Shearlegs<em>

_Pseudoarachnia __silicis_

_Arachnorb Family_

_The Shearlegs seems to be more closely related to the Man-at-Legs than any other Arachnorb. Like the Man-at-Legs, it has fused with machinery at a highly crucial point during its life; however, it lacks any firearms, despite being infused with nearly twice the amount of metal. However, all four of its legs have been covered in the sleek, sharp machinery, and the tips of its legs have been sharpened dramatically. This allows a very sharp jab to down anything that dares oppose it. It constantly keeps its body sleek and shiny, to allow fast travel underground._

_-Hit points: 3000_

_-Pikmin seeds: N/A_

_-Attacks: Stomp (1), jab storm (15) [quickly gets close, sticks out one of its legs and jabs the ground repeatedly] [special attack, only at above 50% health], buzzsaw (any caught) [drills into ground, turns on its side, two legs out of the ground, and spins, following the pikmin] [special attack, only below 50% health]_

_-Attributes:_

_Special attacker: This creature uses a special attack after shaking off any pikmin. These attacks are usually strong, and there is different music played while the attack is happening._

_Danger feet: This creature has dangerous feet that will kill any pikmin that it lands on. This attribute is mainly associated with Arachnorbs, such as Beady Long Legs._

_No carcass: This creature does not leave behind a body in which to bring back to an Onion, and so cannot be harvested for pikmin._

_Armoured: This creature is armoured, which makes all pikmin attacks on it have a one in five chance of only doing half damage._

_Steel coat: This creature takes much less damage if it has been stopped with an Ultra-Bitter Spray._

_Interaction: This creature interacts with its surrounding environment, using any walls, roof or the floor to its advantage._

* * *

><p><em>Cannon Long Legs<em>

_Pseudoarachnia granitus_

_Arachnorb Family_

_The Cannon Long Legs is a highly efficient fighter. While not aggressive at nature (like other Arachnorbs), as soon as it senses danger, it will strike. This Arachnorb has evolved some Cannon Beetle attributes, such as the hard shell that the beetle has, and the ability to shoot rocks from a hole on its underside. Although it is able to shoot unlimited amounts of these rocks, it is quite easily seen that the boulders are almost the size of the midsection itself. This obviously means that it is unable to store the rocks, and instead makes them just before it shoots them. It has been noted that the Cannon Long Legs refuses to step onto any ground which does not have exposed dirt, leading to beliefs that it absorbs dirt through its feet, flash compresses it, and shoots out the product as a boulder._

_-Hit points: 2500_

_-Pikmin seeds: N/A_

_-Attacks: Stomp (10), boulder slam (10, only when targets are directly underneath it), boulder rush (any pikmin caught) [rolls out 5 boulders from its midsection, in a star shape] [special attack, uses 8 boulders instead of 5 when health is under 40%], wall crash (any pikmin caught) [causes 8 boulders to fall from the sky, doubled when at 50% health] [is used whenever it is next to a wall]_

_-Attributes:_

_Special attacker: This creature uses a special attack after shaking off any pikmin. These attacks are usually strong, and there is different music played while the attack is happening._

_Danger feet: This creature has dangerous feet that will kill any pikmin that it lands on. This attribute is mainly associated with Arachnorbs, such as Beady Long Legs._

_No carcass: This creature does not leave behind a body in which to bring back to an Onion, and so cannot be harvested for pikmin._

_Armoured: This creature is armoured, which makes all pikmin attacks on it have a one in five chance of only doing half damage._

_Long-ranged projectile user: __This creature uses long ranged projectiles, which may deflower, kill, or endanger pikmin that are hit with the projectile, depending on what the projectile is._

_Hazard creator: This creature creates hazards, which can range from elements such as fire, to dangers such as bomb rocks or boulders._

_Interaction: This creature interacts with its surrounding environment, using any walls, roof or the floor to its advantage._

* * *

><p><em>Fire Dumple<em>

_Ichthyosa_ _ustulus_

_Grub-Dog Family_

_While the Water Dumple is able to survive on both land and water, the Fire Dumple is unable to live in any water. This is because the fire that it produces uses a special chemical that violently erupts when exposed to water. It also bursts into fire as soon as it comes in contact with any form of oxygen. However, this chemical is highly efficient, as fire can last for days off a single drop of the liquid. It is believed that the reason why the Fire Dumple makes this chemical is so that it can instead live in lava. While this has not yet been observed, it has been theorized that this is possible, due to the chemical solidifying as soon as it is burnt, and growing cooler instead of hotter._

_-Hit points: 200_

_-Pikmin seeds: 5_

_-Attacks: Bite (2), flaming body (burns any non-red pikmin on contact)_

_-Attributes:_

_Eater: This creature eats pikmin, and as such is susceptible to poison damage from white pikmin._

_Flame body: This creature is fully coated in fire, and so is unable to be damaged without any non-red pikmin being burnt._


	6. Chapter 5: Oster Hagen

(I do not own pikmin, Nintendo does. Sucks that they're releasing pikmin 3 on the Wii U, there goes all my money xD)  
>(Sorry for such a long time since the last chapter guys, holidays were even more busy than school, what with being sick the first week, going to my grandparents place and having no internet the second week, and then cleaning horse paddocks the third week. However, to make up for that, this chapter will have THREE entries in it! Yea, that's right, more story to kill the time. Also, to give more variety, I'm moving white to a later chapter. Instead, the third part of this chapter will be red, enjoy!)<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter5: Oster Hagen<strong>

**Blue:  
><strong>

Blue thought that he was going to go blind.  
>The light from the surface was extremely bright as he and his fellow pikmin were launched out of the ground by the newly formed geyser. Eventually, his eyes adjusted, and, to his horror, he saw that they were all still in the air.<p>

Then they fell.

Blue screamed all the way down as they plummeted towards the ground they were headed fast towards. Instead of looking down, Blue was on his back as he fell, so he failed to see the gigantic leaf he was about to land on.

He landed on it with a small splash from the water cupped inside it, and after a few seconds, he opened his eyes. He slowly got up, and looked around. The leaf appeared to be able to support his weight fairly well, due to it being still attached to a branch and being alive. The dark green was so vibrant that it made Blue temporarily forget about what just happened. However, he snapped back into reality as everyone else also landed on the leaf, making it shake violently but retaining its place.

Slowly, everyone got onto their feet, and several lost their balance as the leaf wobbled again slightly. Blue looked at the survivors: Only 18 others remained. Blue saw his girlfriend over on the other side of the leaf, near the stalk. She was looking over the edge, and before Blue even knew what she was doing, she jumped down. He shouted and ran to the edge, making sure to keep his footing. Peering over the side, Blue saw her on the ground just below them, waving at him. He smiled, and called out to the rest of the pikmin, before jumping down off the leaf himself.

As soon as everyone was down, the grieving started. Many had lost their friends, and Blue was silently cursing to himself at how he couldn't save his friend. His girlfriend came up behind him and gave him a hug, before going off and helping the others with their losses in whatever way she could. 'She always tries to help people', Blue thought to himself. 'That's what makes her amazing…'

Not far away, he saw the water spout from which they had been ejected from. It was still releasing water, all of which was flowing into the large body of water which made up the water behind where they used to land when Olimar was on the planet. In front of the large expanse of water was the blue onion, standing idly with the puffs of smoke and occasional bumping noises that were always made when there were pikmin inside of an onion. Blue realised that there were many pikmin who were going to grieve over their lost friends or special someone, and that someone was going to have to make the public announcement. Looking back at the group, he noticed their leader and co-leader were both gone, and, with a sinking feeling, he realised that that meant he was in charge, and therefore, HE had to announce to the thousands of pikmin that they had suffered heavy casualties. Walking over to his girlfriend, who was now sitting under the leaf looking at a flower petal, he told her about what he had to do. She had a shocked look over her face when he finished, and then gave him a long, hard hug. This helped relieve Blue's emotions a bit, but the looming prospect of what he had to do still lingered in his mind as they went into the onion.

When they got inside, Blue instantly heard shouting. Dozens of pikmin rushed over to him, asking him what had happened to the leader and the co-leader, why there were so few of them, why so many of them had lost their flowers, and why there were no purples. "You'll find out in due time when I make a public announcement. Make sure to gather everybody and tell them to meet at the assembly area by the hour. Use notification bells if you wish, just make sure we have as many pikmin hearing his, because I will only say it once. Understood?" They all nodded their heads before running off, going into houses and ringing bells. Blue walked straight to the assembly area, and waited at the podium as hundreds of pikmin started flocking to the vast expanse of ground before him. By the time an hour passed, everyone was standing, talking to themselves about what could have happened that was so important for an urgent announcement to be made. Blue coughed into the microphone in front of him, and everyone fell silent instantly. 'Good to know that they see me as important', he thought to himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have requested this gathering today to bring bad news." He said to the crowd before him. A few whispers rose up from them, but fell down in a few seconds.  
>"Today, during our expedition to the Submerged Castle to gain revenge on the waterwraith, we ran into some difficulties. For starters, there weren't any purple flowers. And the waterwraith had grown smart, and soon our numbers were down to half." He continued to tell the crowd about how they were surely doomed, then the rumbling, then the flooding. When he explained the waterwraith's death, the crowd burst into cheers, and Blue couldn't help but smile. After a few seconds, he continued to explain how the walls were caving in, the ground was flooding, and soon their numbers were down even more. He talked more slowly and with a sombre voice when he explained how he tried to free his friend, but the water spout pushed him away, and how he saw him die, being crushed by the collapsing walls.<p>

By the time he finished explaining, some pikmin had tears in their eyes. Doing a quick identification of all the survivors who stood behind him, he listed off those who had died or were missing. "Let us hope that if they are alive, they will find their way back to the onion, and if they are dead that their spirits are at rest…" He finished, and then dismissed everyone before walking down and away from the podium, his head and heart heavy with all that he had just said.

* * *

><p><strong>Purple:<strong>

How could he have lost ALL his friends and be disconnected from the entirety of his species of pikmin permanently?

Purple had earlier asked if there were any other ways to get back to the Subterranean Complex, but they replied negative, with the walls being much too thick on all other sublevels, and the entrance to the Frontier Cavern closed long ago. Eventually, he accepted the fact that he was never going to see them again, before wondering what had actually happened to the sublevel to make it collapse.

On closer examination of a single jagged piece of metal left from the 'bridge' of the two caverns, Purple noticed that it had been turned to dust by a large force. He threw the metal at the ground with all his strength, and it shattered into shards, which then turned to dust, just as the sublevel had done so before.

He then decided there was no use sulking over it, and decided to explore. After a quick walk around the sublevel, he remembered that this was one of the 'rest' sublevels, where there were no dangers. This specific one was where a special fist-like treasure was held by a mamuta before, which allowed Olimar and his friend to do some kind of mega-punch.

Purple heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see one of the whites holding some nectar out for him. "Thanks", he said, and drank it slowly. Nectar was rare in the Complex, due to the only source of it being from eggs, which only rarely appeared, and as such it was considered a delicacy. 'In this cave, however, it might be common' He thought to himself as he finished. Looking at the white pikmin again, he noticed it was the one who he had first seen, and the one who had followed him to the rock.

They both stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, before the white pikmin shuffled her feet and looked to the ground. "By the way, my name is White…" She said. 'She has a name, like me!' He thought to himself.  
>"May I ask, why do you have a name?" He replied. White looked around and once again shuffled her feet, before timidly replying, "I made a large discovery some time ago, and so I was awarded the opportunity to choose a name. I chose White because it's simple and yet it reflects my colour of pikmin".<br>"Well, I have a name too", Purple replied, and White looked at him with interest in her large red eyes. "My name is Purple, chosen because I was a good representation of my colour of pikmin. I have a name because I befriended a man-at-legs, and me and my team managed to make it friendly to us and deadly to enemies".  
>"Well, nice to meet you Purple", she said with a smile, before quickly running off. Purple wondered what the discovery that White had made was, and started wandering back to where the bridge to the Complex was. Eventually, he got there, and he sat down at the edge, making sure not to have his legs impaled by any small juts of metal that were still in the ground.<p>

Purple looked down, to see if he could see any of the lower sublevels of the Complex. But, as he had expected, he could see none. This was because the sublevels of the Complex were very far apart, and so falling off one would mean doom if you hit the next, and as such, tall fences were built for the safety of all the purples.  
>'I wonder if the rest of the purples know I'm here. Heck, I doubt they even know I'm alive', he thought to himself.<p>

Purple was about to get up when he noticed something move at the very bottom of what he could see of the walls of the abyss. The wall in which the movement had come from was the one directly below him, on which he was sitting on. Purple looked closely, and saw it again. It was a faint shimmer of light reflecting off something metallic.

He heard a faint groan coming from the source of movement, and his face lit up when he recognised what it was. Smiling, he called out, and the man-at-legs ran up the wall as fast as it could go. Soon, it reached him, and let out a wail of joy. Purple held his arms out, and the man-at-legs bent its head down, nuzzling it against him. He hugged it as if there was no tomorrow, then jumped onto its back and opened up the mechanical casing. He did a routine check for any damage, and was even happier when he saw none. The repair drones were deactivated, nestled in their chargers inside the torso. Purple, nor anyone else, had ever figured out how the man-at-legs had seemingly infinite ammo for its gun, but they soon found out the blast were pure energy. Yet, they failed to figure out where all the energy came from. However, they found out that the energy could be harnessed, and so they made repair drones which used the energy. They had noted that there weren't any visible signs of fatigue or weariness on the man-at-legs, but it had taken it a while for it to adjust to the drones inside it, which seemed to make it itch, as the man-at-legs was often seen rubbing its torso against something for the few days after they installed the drones.

He closed up the torso, and then patted the man-at-legs, which responded with a whirr of some gears inside it. Purple hoped one day to teach it to speak in their language, or, if that failed, to install an automatic translator which would translate its chirps and whirrs. They had also discussed the possibility of using some advanced technology as an attempt to make telepathy to communicate with it, but they all agreed it would take too long and would use too many resources.

Sitting on its back, Purple told the man-at-legs about the current situation, and to not attack anything without the white pikmins' permission. It nodded, and then proceeded to stroll around leisurely, looking for a spot that it could burrow into and sleep. It eventually found a soft patch of dirt, and dug into the ground, leaving only the top half of its torso above ground as usual. Purple slid off, and saw some large flowers nearby. He walked over to them, and then noticed that one certain flower looked slightly different from the rest. He cautiously walked over to it, and stood in front of it. There was something in the centres of the two flowers on this plant. Suddenly, they opened up, and Purple instantly realised what it was.

The Creeping Chrysanthemum jumped out of the ground, and as soon as it noticed he wasn't a white pikmin, it tried to eat him, lunging at him. He quickly dodged, and was about to attack, when he remembered that the whites had made harmony with all the creatures here. He tried to shout at it to stop and that he was a friend of the whites, but to no success. It lunged at him again, and this time, it snagged a petal of his flower. Flicking its neck back, it flung him up and opened its mouth. Before Purple landed in the opened jaw, there was a loud bang, and he landed on the closed lips of the chrysanthemum. He quickly got up, and saw that it was now facing towards his man-at-legs, who had risen from the ground and fired a shot, sensing that its master was in danger. The two giants stood, staring each other down. Purple knew that the shot would have been heard, and soon white pikmin would come running along to see what the commotion was. His prediction was correct as three whites came running along, White being one of them.

"Could you get this chrysanthemum to stop attacking me and my man-at-legs?" He asked, and one of the whites jumped in front of it and told it to stop attacking and that he was a friend. The chrysanthemum roared at the man-at-legs, before burrowing back down into the ground, flinging Purple off at the same time.

"Also, don't worry about the man-at-legs, it's mine", he said as he got up from the ground. The man-at-legs quickly scuttled over to him, and wailed at him, before releasing the drones from its back.  
>"Thank you for caring, but the drones won't work on me, I'm not a machine", he said to it with a smile, but the drones started scanning him, and then, to his surprise, started fixing a cut he had received from one of the spines on the chrysanthemum's head. When they had finished, the small cut had been <em>welded <em>back together with metal.

"Oh…my….god!" Purple loudly exclaimed. He tapped at the metal, and it rang with a metallic sound. He quickly wondered what the drones could also do in terms of fixing injuries on creatures that weren't mechanical in any way, but discarded the thought as the sound of the torso of the man-at-legs opening and closing brought him back to reality.

The man-at-legs game another wail and turned its torso towards the three whites, who stepped back with fear in their eyes.

"Okay, this may take a while, but I can explain".

* * *

><p><strong>Red:<strong>

Red woke up to a vivid sunrise and warmth in the air. He smiled, and then remembered all the chaos that took place yesterday. Looking outside, he saw the aftermath of what had happened.

Smoke billowed from holes in the ground, rocks and trees where bomb rocks had been aplenty.

Many carcasses littered the ground, some whole, other in bits. Breadbugs and various other creatures were dragging them away or eating them on the spot.

Paths and structures of rock had collapsed and been buried, making the landscape nearly unrecognisable.

Red sighed, and walked backwards into the cave, and laid down where he had slept the night before, resting his head on the wall behind him. For some reason, it was warmer here, but he thought nothing of it.

Then something clicked in his head.

He was sitting in the middle of the cave.  
>There was no wall behind him.<p>

He quickly spun around and jumped up as the Orange Bulborb tried to snap him up. He realised the warmth was air being exhaled from the nostrils of the beast.

Quickly waking his friend up, the jumped and darted around the bulborb until it lost its footing and fell down. Together, they whacked at it with all their might, until it was no more.

"Crim… would be proud of us… if he knew… what we just did", panted Red's friend, who was smiling and stretching. Red agreed - Crim always liked it when he saw others do well in battle, seeing as he was a veteran, he would be the one to decide if there was another pikmin that was worthy of being a veteran. He had been a veteran for several years, and was at the peak of his performance, and he didn't hide it when they were training or in battle.

Red then noticed that the pile of straw that he had been sleeping on was much too big for the orange bulborb itself. He pointed this out to his friend, who, after a look around it, noticed that there was old dried drool around the edges. "The home of the bulblax we fought yesterday maybe?" He asked, and Red nodded.

They walked out of the cave and scanned what was before them. Nothing paid attention to them as they strolled through the carcasses, rubble and scavengers. Eventually, they found what they thought to be was the area the onion had landed in the previous day.

Except that there was something in the middle of the area.

Red took a tentative step towards it, failing to realize the flower-like pattern on the ground around the object.

He tapped on the object, and it gave a hollow sound. After a bit more studying, Red realised what it was.

"It's an egg…" He murmured to his friend, who had walked up beside him.

The egg was large, and coloured pink-white with some small speckles on it. Red mentally compared the eggs size to that of a snagret neck and head, but his train of thought broke off when a loud noise came from the egg, and cracks appeared over it.

Suddenly, a shard snapped off, and green gas seeped out of the egg. Red instinctively knew it was dangerous, so he stepped away from it. More and more shards came off the egg, until half the egg was off. The rest suddenly exploded off, and Red and his friend had to avoid the fragments of the egg that flew past them. Red closed his eyes and held up his hands as one piece flew towards him, but it was promptly stopped by his friend's bud, who had swung it like a bat.

Red opened his eyes just in time to see the shard fly out of the area, and he heard a splash as it hit water somewhere far off. He then turned his eyes towards where the egg had been, and he thought he was going to die right there and then of fright.

He had only heard about it from the blues, but it had given him nightmares. Supposedly, Red was going to be called from the onion to help fight against one of these, but Olimar had decided not to, as he wouldn't have had time to call those that had just come from the onion to his side before they were killed by it. Red figured that the creature must have been so fearsome and brutal if it forced Olimar to fight without taking extra pikmin from the onion.

And now, this very creature stood over him and his friend, the bright blue eyes making Red weak at the knees.

The Smoky Progg roared at them with an invisible mouth, and started slowly trundling towards them. "RUN!" Red shouted, and they ran. Even with his friend only being a bud, they ran as fast a white flower pikmin, if not faster, away from the terrible danger that followed them.

After what seemed like hours of running, they finally came to a standstill.

They were no longer in the Wistful Wild, but in a new area, somewhere that they had never been. Not even Olimar or any other of the leaders had been here.

A completely new region, theirs to explore.

Red and his friend realised that the enemies here could be entirely different to what they had faced before, and they shouted in happiness as their fighting instinct roared inside them to challenge stuff.

This fighting courage was partially put out as they heard the distant roar of the smoky progg somewhere far behind them, trying to track them down. They decided to go into the new wilderness, which consisted mostly of stone, raised and lowered in various areas. In areas that dirt existed, there was dead trees and burnt grass. But the most prominent feature that dominated the landscape was the gigantic volcano in the middle of the area. This volcano was surrounded by a few other, smaller mountains, but Red and his friend had a clear view over it all, being on the edge of a cliff which was raised above everything else, except for on the other side of the region, which they could faintly see. Over there was another cliff face, at the same height as the one they were currently on.

"Maybe the region in front of us was made after the two cliffs broke away from each other or something?" Red suggested to his friend. "Probably something like that, yea", he replied.

They continued wandering, stopping once to hide behind a tree as the smoky progg trundled onto the edge of the cliff where they had been before. It had looked around and roared, before walking back into the red forest behind it. Red let out a sigh of relief before noticing his friend wasn't next to him.

Turning around, he saw him chasing after an Iridescent Flint Beetle. Except this one was a ruby red, and seemed to be burning whatever it touched. Red made a quick mental note to call it a Crimson Flint Beetle, before being unable to resist for any longer. He ran after it with his friend, the shine mesmerising and attractive to pikmin, as usual.

Red eventually managed to touch the shell of the bug they were chasing, and noticed it was hot. Very hot. He thanked the starts he was a red pikmin, else me might have had a permanent burn on his hand. He jumped, and landed close to where it was. His friend picked up the idea, and jumped, landing on the back of the beetle. It flipped, leaving a pellet, before burrowing away.

Red's friend got up, disappointed, before looking around. They were close to the base of one of the mountains. Red's eyes averted from the mountain to the pellet, and saw that it was different. He walked over to it, and touched it. It felt normal. Maybe it was covered in digestive juices from the flint beetle? He tried wiping it, but nothing happened. It was a genuine pellet, completely normal, nothing wrong with it at all.

Save for the fact that it was orange.

* * *

><p>Whew, glad that's over. I hope you know that I am aiming to make this story be the longest pikmin story to date. I want to make it exceed 100,000 words. That's my goal. And I'm going to achieve it, eventually, no matter how long and dragging-on this story will be.<br>But, for the time being, here's the entry for the Ruby Flint Beetle.

* * *

><p><em>Ruby Flint Beetle<em>

_Pilli Volcanus_

_Flint Beetle Family_

_The Ruby Flint Beetle is a species of Flint Bug found in and around volcanoes, as they eat obsidian found in the area. They extract certain minerals from this ore by putting in their own chemicals to discharge them. These minerals are then formed into pellets. The special chemical then breaks down what is left of the obsidian, which turns red and gains extreme, long lasting heat from the process. This is then discharged to the shell, not only as an effective way to remove the waste from the body, but as defence, as the heat burns anything attempting to attack the shell._

_-Hit points: N/A (Petrified: 1000)_

_-Pikmin seeds: N/A_

_-Attacks: N/A_

_-Attributes:_

_Peaceful: This creature cannot kill any pikmin directly._

_Attraction: This creature is irresistible to pikmin, who may start following it, sometimes automatically, depending on the creature._

_Burrowing: __This creature burrows, and as such will be unable to be attacked until it shows itself. Some creatures, such as snagrets, may appear in a different location than where it burrowed._

_Timed: There is an invisible timer that activates after a certain event, which, then the timer runs out, another event will happen. Examples include the timer starting when the creature awakens, and when it ends, it goes back to sleep. Such an example is the Flint Bug family._

_One-shot: Once this creature goes away, either by burrowing down or something similar, it cannot be fought again, until the area has reloaded (by re-entering the cave or by starting a new day)._

_Swarm-plating: This creature does not take damage from being swarmed. It will still be attacked when swarmed, but it will not take damage (unless it is petrified). Pikmin must be thrown onto the creature to do damage._

_Dispenser: This creature may release objects when attacked._

_Encryption: This creature does not take damage normally. The definition of normal damage is when a pikmin whacks the creature, it loses a point of its health. Instead, this creature does not have a health circle unless petrified._


	7. Chapter 6: Centre of Chaos

(Must I say it again? I do not own pikmin)  
>(Whee, quick chapter updates FTW! This chapter includes something special, so make sure to read it and read it right! Also, thank you all for reading the story so far. It's great to know that people actually like my writing. If you wish, feel free to leave a review. Who knows? Leave an idea and it might be included in later chapters. Also, because I love you all so much, this chapter will have three entries in it as well. Enjoy!)<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter6: Centre of Chaos<strong>

**White:**

White stared up at the man-at-legs, who towered over her and the two whites that accompanied her. It seemed friendly, but White clearly remembered losing a flower to a shot that had burnt through the tip of her stalk when she had been fighting one alongside Olimar in the Hole of Heroes. She could have died if she wasn't given some nectar by her friend, and since then, White had held the belief that she would have to repay her friend someday, despite his protests.

"This is my pet man-at-legs. Don't worry, it's harmless. Except if you try and harm me. Then you could be screwed. But anyway, feel free to try and converse with it, it understands fairly well", Purple said. White cautiously walked up to it, and it lowered its body until it was level with her. She reached out a hand, and slowly patted it. White could hear the soft whirs of gears and other machinery inside the body, and she smiled. This would be great defence for anything that dared attack them, as well as a great way to get around. It always took forever to walk around the Frontier Cavern, but with this, transport would be quick.

"Does it have a name?" One of White's friends asked. Purple looked at the man-at-legs for a little bit, and then slowly replied, "We have thought of giving it a name, but we do not know what gender it is. Of course, it does have a gender - it is a living creature inside the machinery after all - but we have failed to specify whether it is a male or female specimen."

"So, mister, what do you want to do?" White's other friend asked.

"Sorry?"

"Well you're going to get bored sooner or later, so you might as well find something to do"

"…I guess. Got any suggestions?"

White's friend was silent for a few seconds, before shrugging and turning to White. "Got any ideas?" He asked her.

White could not think of a single thing that Purple could participate in. Maybe he could help with something? But what could he help with? The tunnel that they were building was an option, but all their digging tools had broken from overuse. They didn't have any explosives, either, especially not small, compact ones…

…Or did they?

"Well… maybe you could help us with something", White said as she turned to face Purple. "But we would need your man-at-legs to help, if that's okay". Purple tilted his head, before nodding and asking his man-at-legs if it was willing to help the whites do something. It nodded, and he jumped onto its back. "Well then", he said with a smile on his face. "Whatcha need help with?"

They eventually reached a large construction site, with stones and other various things places around the area to show its importance. On the far side of the site was a large hole in the wall, spanning on for ages. Torches lit the gloomy darkness of the tunnel every few metres, and continued on further than White could see, despite her eyes.

"So you want me to help continue this tunnel by having my man-at-legs blast it?" Purple asked.

"Correct", White said.

"Okay. I assume you need concentrated firepower with little explosion radius?"

"Something like that. We're not really good at explosions, so we'll just go with whatever you recommend"

Purple nodded, and opened up the man-at-legs torso. He filled with a few wires and buttons, and a few sparks flew before he finally closed the torso and sat back up, wiping his forehead with his arm. He then told it what to do, and the man-at-legs let out a soft wail, before quickly scuttling down the tunnel. White and her friends quickly ran after it, but it was still faster. Eventually, it stopped, and White pulled up to it a few seconds later, panting at the amount of running she had just done. Her friends (both buds) joined her soon after, also puffing and sweating.

Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the tunnel, and dust filled the air. It soon settled, and when it did, White noticed that a large chunk had been taken out of the end of the tunnel.

"Whoa… that worked really well!" She said in excitement. This was a major step in making this tunnel into the unknown!

"I hope it doesn't cave in…" Purple murmured, before firing again.

Several hours later, they had made huge progress. They had doubled the length of the tunnel, if not even more than that, and the soil here was different. White thought she faintly recognised it, but she shook her head and kept watching as shot after shot was fired.

As the dust cleared after a substantially powerful shot to clear through a stone, White saw something through the dirt. There was a cavern on the other side of this wall, but White could only see a tiny bit of it. "There's an open space there, make this shot big so we can get through in one go. If, of course, that's the safest way" She said to Purple.

"It is indeed, well done", He said with a smile, and White was proud of herself.

The man-at-legs fired another shot, and once the dust and debris settled, White stared into the open space that lay before them. She walked forward, looking at what was before her. She was on a small dirt structure, with a column of fire geysers in front of her. Suddenly, another fire geyser erupted right next to her, and she jumped to her right in fright. She then had to quickly jump just before another fire geyser lit up when she had just been standing. Once she was settled again, White took a better look at where she was, and then remembered looking up at this exact spot ages ago, watching as the reds had gone through the fire to get a wooden bust of some kind. But that meant…

"The Bulblax Kingdom!" She shouted, and Purple looked through the hole. "No way… it is!" He said, looking at each fire geyser as it erupted into flames.

Looking to her right, White saw the geyser to the surface, but it wasn't active. That was when she noticed the lava seeping from a hole in the wall near it.

"Careful, there's some lava flowing here…" she said, before nimbly jumping from her ledge onto the ground below. Soon after, Purple followed, creating a loud thud as he landed. White's two friends came down on top of the man-at-legs (they had taken a liking to it and absolutely loved riding it), which carefully stepped over the fire geysers and the small streams of lava.

White started walking towards the entrance to the arena which used to house an emperor bulblax, but a loud squawk made her stop and her stem stand on end in alarm. She quietly crept over to the entrance, and looked around the corner. Her eyes widened in surprise, as she saw two pikmin fighting a small snagret that was coloured red. She motioned for the other to come over, and when they saw what was happening, they whispered to each other. They all desperately wished to help the two pikmin, but they feared for their own lives, and the man-at-legs was tired from the tunnelling, yet recharging.

"Soon, the man-at-legs can help. Maybe in a few minutes. But for now, all we can do is watch and wait", Purple whispered, and White nodded.  
>She hoped the two pikmin could survive that long.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Yellow:<strong>

Unfortunately, the two pikmin that were fighting the snagret were Yellow and his friend. They had carefully navigated through the Kingdom, avoiding what they could and defeating or running away from any that saw them, only to find a molten snagret waiting for them at the last sublevel. This one, however, seemed smaller, and was not nearly as skilled as the one they had encountered in the Snagret Hole. It was able to breathe fire, but not as well as the older one, and its head wasn't on fire. It was definitely a fledgling, and Yellow had soon realised that it wasn't trying to kill them, it was merely curious. It seemed plump and well fed, as any good snagret at that age should be, as didn't appear to be hungry.

Yellow dodged a peck from the snagret, and kept running. He didn't want to harm it - it was only a baby and didn't want to harm them - but at the same time he knew that they would wear out before the snagret did.

The snagret dived underground, and resurfaced quickly in front of him. As it had been doing since it first saw them, it spat some fire around it (no doubt this was a protection method that its parent would have taught it) to prevent them from getting close, before nipping at Yellow again. He jumped back, and the snagret squawked in delight at the fun it was having, playing with these new found little creatures.

Yellow smiled to himself. It was enjoying itself, having fun. He jumped and darted as more pecks were aimed at him, before trying to keep up the snagrets attention by making funny noises. He heard a laugh from his right, and saw his friend giggling at him. He smiled to her, before quickly dodging another pack.

Suddenly, there was a loud rumble.

Yellow's smiled dropped instantly, as did his friend's, as they both remembered the rumble from the Snagret Hole. He noticed that the few magma leaks in the walls around him were now suddenly spurting out lava at a much faster rate, before settling back down. The rumble also disappeared.

They looked around, and the baby snagret made a little chirp.

*BOOM*

The ground in front of Yellow exploded, and rock and magma flew everywhere. He wasn't hit by any of it, but it scared him nevertheless. He slowly lowered his arms, to see the molten snagret from the Snagret Hole towering above him. The baby (Yellow realised it was the offspring of the adult molten snagret that stood before him) peered from behind it, curious as to what its parent would do.

Yellow ran for his life as a searing fireball landed where he had just been standing. His friend also ran, both of them going in whatever direction they could.

The snagret decided to go after his friend, breathing fire in the area she was running to. She stopped in her tracks, and turned and ran the other way. This effort was in vain, as another firewall was made from more fire. Yellow started running towards her, but tripped on a rock and fell face first. He tried to get up, but another rock had rolled onto his foot, and refused to budge. Yellow looked at his friend, desperate to try and help her. The snagret coiled its head back, ready to strike at any second…

*BANG*

The shot echoed throughout the sublevel, and the snagret shrieked in pain. Yellow looked around, confused. His eyed rested upon something at one of the entrances to the arena, and he gasped.

A man-at-legs?

How?

He then noticed something in front of it.  
>Or rather, some<em>things<em>.

Pikmin. One purple and three white.  
><em>Purple and white pikmin!<em>

Yellow could hardly believe his luck as the man-at-legs continued to fire at the snagret, before it burrowed back into the ground, its fledgling following quickly.

Eventually, he got the rock off his foot, and he slowly walked over to the four pikmin, who were helping his friend.

"Oh hey mister yellow pikmin sir!" One white pikmin said, looking up at him. "Don't worry about the man-at-legs, it's on our side and really friendly".

"Okay… thanks for helping us there. We would be doomed if you hadn't been here", Yellow said. He looked over at the man-at-legs, which seemed to be communicating with the purple pikmin.

"So why is the man-at-legs friendly?" he asked, and this time, the purple pikmin answered, without turning around. "Because it's my pet, to an extent. It's getting smarter by the day, soon enough it'll be more like a friend than a pet".

"So what, you made peace with it and decide to claim it as yours or something?" He asked.

"Kinda", was the reply he got. Yellow smiled a little, but then his eyes widened as the torso opened up. He was ready for a huge deadly gun of death to come out at per normal, before he realised that the _top _half of the body had opened.

Suddenly, four small spheres with weird appendages came from the opened torso, and flew towards his friend, who had received some minor burns. The purple pikmin looked surprised and intrigued, and the three white pikmin the same. They hovered around her for a bit, making beeping noises, then suddenly stabbed her with some of the appendages. Yellow looked on in horror as the weird objects used mechanical tools on her soft, exposed skin, but he saw the purple pikmin smiling, and he wondered what was going on. He then saw that there was some kind of metal on the purple pikmin's arm, and he realised that they

A few seconds later, the orbs flew back to the man-at-legs, and landed inside the opened up torso, which then closed. Yellow's eyes averted to his friend, and he gasped.

Small metallic patches covered her skin where there had been burns!

He quickly hurried over to her, worried as to what exactly might have happened.

"Are you alright? What did they do to you?" He asked her. She simply shrugged before tapping one of the patches. It gave off a metallic ring, and she smiled.

"Interesting… they did it again…" Said the purple pikmin to himself, but it was just loud enough for Yellow to hear. "What exactly did those do?" He asked him.  
>"Well, they soldered her skin back together. Just on the top it seems, but it's the perfect protecting for the exposed skin underneath, so that it can heal quickly and easily without infection. I have metal on my arm as well, and I can already tell that my flesh is starting to heal, despite it only being several hours since I received the wound".<p>

"And it won't harm her in any way?"

"It shouldn't, unless yellow pikmin are allergic to the metal or something", the pikmin chuckled to himself. Yellow let out a slight sigh, before turning to one of the white pikmin, who was studying the arena in which they were all located in. She poked at the ground, walked a few paces, and then poked it again. She kept doing this a few times before suddenly, without warning, she violently whacked the ground. A crack appeared in the hard dirt in front of her, and she kept whacking. Yellow realised she was digging something up, but due to her having special eyes, only she could see it - for now.

The other white pikmin saw what she was doing and helped her. Soon, Yellow saw a glimpse of what they were unearthing, and he hurried over, eager to do something. Together, the four of them continued to uplift the mysterious object, until they gave an almighty push and tipped it out of the ground, sending dirt and dust everywhere.

Once the dust settled, Yellow looked at what they had unearthed. It seemed familiar in a way, but he could not tell how. It shone bright silver, with a small antenna on the top. He thought it looked very futuristic, and then noticed the four nubs at the base of it. They looked like something was supposed to come out of them, but for the life of him, Yellow could not tell what.

The white pikmin were just as curious as he was, but they all turned around when they heard a large wail behind them.

The man-at-legs was steaming furiously, and it suddenly ran over towards the orb, and opened the lower half of its body. The gun lowered out, and instantly started firing, no laser guidance, no aim-before-shoot timer. Shot after shot was fired, some of the energy blasts reflecting off, others appearing the slightly damage the object. Soon, it stopped firing, and stood there, waiting.

Nothing happened.

Yellow and all the other pikmin stared at the object, but it failed to move at all. He looked at it, still trying to work out what it looked like, then back at the man-at-legs, the orb shaped torso rising and lowering constantly, with groans and wails accompanying each movement.

Then it clicked.

But just a little too late.

Four long, silvery blades shot out of the nubs at the base of the object, and planted themselves firmly into the ground. The orb then raised itself, and soon enough, the large mechanical arachnorb (A shearlegs, but this name unknown to any of the group members) stood towering over them, letting out soft hisses. The man-at-legs wailed very loudly, and fired several more shots at it. The new arachnorb dodged all of them, except the last, which hit its leg, damaging it. A thin line of smoke trailed from the knee joint of the leg, and the shearlegs hissed and clanked furiously.

Yellow sensed the impending chaotic danger, and ran to the edge of the area, the other pikmin following shortly behind.

A war of epic proportions was about to start between the man-at-legs and the hostile shearlegs, and Yellow was right at the edge of it. Too close and certain death would arise. Of course, being back up against the arena wall, they could not get further away. Their only option was to run towards one of the exits.

Yellow started to run, but stopped abruptly as he saw that lava streams had blocked off both ends, leaving them all trapped in an arena of doom.

* * *

><p><strong>? ? ?<br>**

The mysterious figure looked out upon the landscape that was the Awakening Woods. It knew that there was chaos, danger and death all around him, and he had caused it. Well partially.

"The poor creatures… how will they survive?" It said to itself quietly, before walking back into the base of the volcano. Soon, thanks to amazing speed, it reached the other side, where another hole was apparent. From this side, the volcano looked inactive, as the smoke and lava was only coming out of it from the other side, and a large semi-dome piece of rock at the top covered and redirected any ash and smoke away. Surprisingly, this was a natural formation, not something it had made.

It peered out over the landscape, which was vastly different from the other side. It was barren and rocky, with only the very occasional dead tree or bunch of grass in the small patches of dirt that haphazardly littered the ground and small mountains.

It was about to go back into the base of the volcano, when it noticed movement at the far edge of his vision.

Looking closer, he noticed two figures wandering, holding an orange pellet. 'The orange pikmin grew all their pellet posies in fields, with large protection, so they must've gotten it from a ruby flint beetle', it thought to itself.

After a few minutes, it finally realised what it was staring at.

Two red pikmin, healthy and happy, smiles across their faces.

It smiled to itself, before turning around and whistling. A loud rumble filled the cave, and before long, Titanic stood there, fully armoured with the mega-weapons he had designed himself.

"Well Titanic, let's go meet our new guests, shall we?" Neode said with a smile, before jumping onto its back. His smiled turned to a grin as Titanic scuttled out of the cave and down the volcano face with amazing speed, and jumped straight behind a large rock at the base. Peering over the top, Neode saw that the two pikmin were making their way towards him, obviously not known he was there. He lowered himself and got ready to wait. He was good at patience, a skill learnt from years of waiting for a sign that there was hope.

And this was it.

* * *

><p>Yup, last chapter was Neode. Remember the prologue? Hopefully his section raised some question, and yes, there ARE orange pikmin, which the orange pellet from last chapter should have told you. So currently, Yellow, White, Purple and their respective friends are together, Blue and his friends are going to do something (find out next chapter :P) and Red and his friend are going meet Neode.<p>

And to put one question to ease, yes, there will be entries from an orange pikmin, who, surprisingly, is named Orange.

And if you have liked the story so far, then you'll absolutely love the next few chapters.

Please to be reviewing? xD

Do note that this story still has absolutely ages to go. Why yes, this will be reaching 100,000 words. Therefore making this the biggest pikmin story on this website. It's gonna be an amazing journey, so hold onto your hats!


	8. Chapter 7: Natural Complex

(Hello. It's been nearly two years since I last updated this. However, I am still sticking to the task of creating the biggest Pikmin story here. So let's begin, shall we?  
>Oh and yea, Pikmin is © Nintendo etc. etc. blah blah blah)<p>

(ALSOALSOALSO: New Pikmin in Pikmin 3? Methinks I have at least two more characters to make.)

**Chapter 7: Natural Complex**

**Blue**

"Do you know why water is blue?"  
>Blue and his girlfriend were sitting beside a small lake, watching the faint ripples created by miniscule insects drifting upon its surface. It had been several days since the disturbing events that had taken place within the Submerged Castle, and the other Pikmin were finally starting to accept the mind-numbing losses sustained. Despite the gloomy mood throughout them, the surrounding scenery was the opposite: Summer was just around the corner, and everywhere there were the vibrant colours of flowers coupled with the succulent scents of various fruits and berries starting to ripen. The sun was shining brighter than it had all year, creating dazzling reflections off of any surface that was covered in water - being the Perplexing Pool, that meant everything.<p>

"Isn't it because light is made up of all different colours, and they all bounce off except blue?" Blue's girlfriend cautiously asked.

"Yep. Well, at least that's what we know, thanks to Olimar's field reports. It could be something entirely different," Blue responded.

"Does that mean that we're made of water?" His girlfriend inquired.

Blue turned to look at her. He opened his mouth to respond, but quickly closed it - he had no idea. After a few seconds of thinking, he came to a conclusion.

"In a way, I'd say yes. It'd explain how we can survive in water - it can't drown itself," Blue tried to force confidence into his answer, but his girlfriend saw right through the façade. She giggled silently to herself, before shuffling closer to him and resting her head on his shoulder. Blue faintly smiled, before wrapping his arm around her and drawing her closer.

Despite the gruesome events in the Castle, they were still together and alive. And to him, that's all that mattered.

"Hey, Blue! Come over here, would ya?"

Blue's tranquil state of mind came crashing down. He turned his head to see one of his friends - a small, energetic leaf Pikmin who was new to the team - waving him over to where he was standing. He was gesturing to a large rock. He had no idea why it was so important, but Blue decided that it'd be worth the trouble, just in case. He got up, and left his girlfriend sitting by the water, kicking her legs slowly and observing the waves they made with a smile.

"So I found this while out on scout duty today, sir," The small Pikmin stated with a hint of wariness in his voice. Blue picked up on it immediately, which caused him to start to worry himself.

"Okay, sure, it's a rock. What's so special about it?" He asked. However, before the leaf could answer, Blue noticed the cause of concern: a small, polygonal drawing was expectedly carved into one of the many flat sides of the silver stone.

Blue also couldn't help but notice that it had been carved using a laser. When he pointed this out to the small leaf Pikmin, his eyes widened. "Blimey, how can you tell?"

"Simple. A carving made with a pick would not normally leave scorch marks as consistent and heavy as that. A laser, on the other hand, fits the bill perfectly. It also explains how the lines are so perfect," Blue explained. The leaf nodded at the appropriate intervals throughout, his eyes still fixated on the enigmatic lines.

"However, as to what the carving is supposed to be of, I have no idea," Blue concluded.

"Should I take it to the Onion to show the others?" The small Pikmin asked, a slight frown of puzzlement accompanying his intense gaze.

"Sure, but try not to make too big of a fuss out of it. I don't want to cause even more panic - that would only end in tears, and we've had enough of those already".

The leaf nodded, and started rolling the rock towards the Onion, which had decided to land in the middle of the region this particular day.

The Onion, like the Pikmin, was half-pant and yet fully sentient. However, instead of being half-animal, it was half-machine instead. However, despite it not only being a mechanical construct but also being alive and aware, the Pikmin had had no success with controlling it, or even communicating with it. It could not be asked to land in a specific spot, nor could it be asked to alter any of its internal functions. Instead, all it provided for the Pikmin was a seemingly unlimited source of food and shelter, as well as valuable data about the Pikmin count in the region and in the Onion itself, of which was growing exponentially every month. The fact that they were aware of everything happening, alongside with the fact that no Pikmin alive had been able to get it to change any of its management functions, lead scientists to believe that the Onion was able to hear the requests - it just simply ignored them.

Blue walked back to where his girlfriend was sitting, and placed himself beside her once again.

"It's exciting that you're the new battle commander, hun," She proclaimed quietly.

"It is indeed"

"But… make sure you stay alive, alright? For me, okay? I don't want you to die…"

"Trust me, I'll push mountains to make sure that you and I can stay together. Besides, with you on the team, there's no way I'll fall out of line - you'll see to that, I'm sure!" Blue smiled at her, and was pleased to see a faint smile in return. This small smirk quickly turned into a full-fledged grin, before his girlfriend started giggling. Blue couldn't help but find himself laughing too, and within a matter of seconds they were both cackling loudly, a sign, Blue noted, that they were content with life once more.

**Red**

Red had never felt more excitement.

He and his friend were staring at an orange 1 pellet that was firmly held in their grasp.

Pellet Posies only grew in certain colours, these colours being produced by the plants absorbing the liquid remains of nearby Pikmin carcasses. In turn, it allowed the Posies to reproduce by ejecting their microscopic seeds along with the Pikmin seeds when the pellet is absorbed into the Onion. It was a gruesome cycle, but it was a brilliant evolutionary tactic: Pikmin got more Pikmin through same-coloured pellets, which made the Posies more attractive, hence increasing the chance of spreading seeds.

"I wonder what the new Pikmin are like?" Red asked his friend. He simply shrugged in return, before returning his attention to the crystallised nectar in his palms. Just like all other pellets, it was shiny, perfectly round, and had a large white number printed in both sides. It was still a mystery as to how these numbers were created perfectly every time - the reason as to why they were created in the first place was an even bigger conundrum.

As they continued to study the pellet, Red heard a rustle behind him. He turned around, only to find nothing moving behind him.

"What's up? Hear something?" His friend asked, peering behind him at the same vacant area.

"Must be hearing things…" Red muttered, but just before he turned back, he heard another rustle. This time, it was louder.

"What was that?" His friend asked, with a slightly slower and more worried tone, different from his usual chippy demeanour. Red internally nodded, glad that he wasn't hallucinating the sounds.

Once again, another rustle. This time, Red spotted a fractional movement from one of the nearby bushes. It would have gone unnoticed if he hadn't been absolutely intent on finding the source.

However, with both of the bud Pikmins' attention fixated on the phantom rustling, another creature was able to easily sneak up behind them, its many legs barely making a sound as it slithered up on its unsuspecting prey.

The long creature, a Chromatic Pinchipede, had come from a very distant land. It glistened in the sunlight, its flat, metallic segments looking like coins. On each of these metal plates there was a small gap, where the skin of the predator was exposed to allow the temperature of the body to regulate at all time - too hot, and the metal casing would melt, killing the Pinchipede slowly and painfully. To top off the impressive list of features, halos of spikes rimmed the edge of every segment, as well as along the impressive mandibles that were the defining feature and the namesake of the imposing beast.

It slowly opened its gaping pincers wide; sharp, steel-lined teeth blindingly reflecting the harsh sunlight. However, it was this that gave it away.

Red and his friends noticed slowly moving patches of light suddenly appear in front of them, and they slowly turned around to face their new obstacle.

Quickly thinking, Red's friend ducked down, pulling Red down at the same time. Just as they hit the floor, the mandibles above then came snapping back together at breakneck speeds. The sound of metal hitting metal echoed throughout the region, and Red's ears were ringing.

"Run!" His friend shouted, and before he knew what he was doing, Red was on his feet and sprinting away, the Pinchipede in hot pursuit. Because of its long, sleek build, it quickly gained momentum, and was soon snapping at the air right behind him.

Red figured that if it could go in one direction fast, then it would have trouble turning around. He veered to the left, and was relieved to see that their predator was indeed slow when it came to changing direction. However, He failed to notice that right in front of him, there was a large drop.

"Watch out!" Red's friend screamed at him, and he turned to look where he was going, only to see thin air in front of him.

Suddenly, Red's speed forward was outclassed by his speed downwards.

Above him, he heard the sound of falling rocks, and he turned to see what he wished had not happened.

The Pinchipede, unable to slow down, had launched off of the side of the cliff, and was speeding towards Red at a much greater velocity than he was plummeting.

Looking down, Red only saw ground, a long way away. He was sure that he would be eaten before he hit it.

Red decided that if this was going to be his last moments, he would enjoy them.

He took notice of the visuals around him. The sun, starting to set, was beginning to bathe everything in a warm orange glow. The Pinchipede was gleaming bronze, and Red thought that for just a second, it actually look rather beautiful. The few scattered clouds that hung lazily in the sky were a majestic gradient of pink, orange and yellow, and slowly trundled across the horizon, as if they had nowhere they needed to be.

Red was glad that he was going to be finished in such a picturesque setting.

However, he then realised that was a red Pikmin. He should be fighting, not giving up.

His instincts kicking in, and the Pinchipede inching closer be the second, Red prepared himself. He cracked his knuckles, readied his stem, and waited.

The looming column of metallic death, sensing that it would have to fight, slowly opened its maw. Red could see right into the guts of the beast, and saw that it had preyed on many Bulborbs and Sheargrubs recently. He was revolted, but he stood his 'ground', and arched back his stem.

'Wait for it…' He thought to himself. He used the opportunity to quickly cast a glance at the sun once again, and saw that it was about to dip over the horizon. Using it as him timer, he counted the seconds.

'3…'

'2…'

'1…'

The sun disappeared, and twilight fell.

**?**

Sunset was a beautiful time. Everything looked so similar, allowing it combine in swirls to produce a piece of art only nature could render.

The figure was standing alone, on the edge of the defined perimeter. Nobody knew what lay beyond it, but those who went out beyond the border seldom returned. Those who did were either nearly dead, or driven insane. They had no idea who or what caused it, but all they knew was that until their numbers were big enough, they would stay well within range to their Onion.

"Get to the Onion, will ya? We won't go without you, and we really want to go!" A voice called from behind the figure.

"Yea, I'm coming. I'm just enjoying what's been offered to us, that's all," it retorted.

"Whenever others do that they end up bonkers!"

"And do I look out of it to you? I'm perfectly fine, honest".

"I know you feel safe now, but although you're camouflaged now, you'll stand out like a sore thumb at night!"

With that, the figure could not be bothered arguing. As the sun hit the horizon, the scenery started to become darker, and so it hastened back to the Onion in a hurry.

It thought it saw something out of the corner of its eye, along the face of the nearby cliff, but it was in too much of a haste to get inside to take particular notice.

Once inside, the figure headed straight for the nectar server, hankering for the delicious and nutritious liquid that sustained basic Pikmin life.

"I wish we could survive at night. That way, we would be able to blend in with the sunrise too," It said, while waiting for its mug to fill.

"Yea. That'd be nice, but sadly impossible," The other figure from before said.

Strangely content with the answer, the figure sat down, mug in hands. Despite missing out on the potential of very early morning, it was glad to be an orange Pikmin nonetheless.

Sunset was the best time of day.

You get three guesses as to the name of the last character.

For those of you anticipating a creature log for the Chromatic Pinchipede, think again. This boss is featured in Pikmin Adventure, part of Nintendo Land for the Wii U.

On the topic of which, once enough information about the rock and flying Pikmin is revealed, I will most definitely be introducing those two species. Even better, they will have their own two 'main' characters. Pink and Grey? Pink and Grey.

That would bring the total of logged characters, not counting more potential characters (!), to 9, giving us a good cycle of three characters a chapter. If we end up with 10 characters, however, I would go to FIVE characters a chapter. So, you'd want to hope that Nintendo has more Pikmin up their pin-striped sleeves.

So long for now!


End file.
